Devil's Advocate
by Yemi Hikari
Summary: Keith somehow finds a comatose Allura on one of his missions, but Lance decides to bring back the love of his life by stealing the souls of others. Keith is of course the first soul he needs in his attempt to revive Allura from her soul sickness, or is it? (Open Novella 2019)
1. Never Win

_Disclaimer - I don't own Voltron: Legendary Defender Note - This is written for Open Novella 2019. The prompt I am using is Suspense 7: Soul Sickness. The prompt was "The prompt is, "to save their beloved, an anti-hero becomes the stealer of souls of the rich and corrupt – a kind of Robin Hood of life energy. Though desperate and forlorn, the anti-hero's beloved revolves their soul from sickness, but with the burden of the stolen souls' corrupt wickedness."". I got through to the third round with this one._

_The story is involves one-sided relations between Lance and Allura. _While some feel her relationship with Lance was a healthy one I am with the ones who feel the relationship was one-sides and toxic. For example, Allura was upset because she originally thought she and Coran were the last Alteans. Later they find out there were others who were alive, but they were being used for experiments and manipulated. Lance made her feel guilty and apologize for the way she felt about the circumstances her race found themselves in by pointing out the way she felt hurt him emotionally.

The first chapter opens up with Lance being possessive of Allura because he was possessive of her in the canon material to the point of acting like she was a prize to win. The story involves character death because of the prompt and because the story is of the horror genre. The story analyzes the issues regarding Lance and Allura's relationship but delves into some of Lance's inner demons he doesn't realize are there. I actually succeeded in getting the direction I wanted to go.

Warning: Character Death

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Never Win_**

For once, he won.

Lance's childhood dream was entering the garrison academy and becoming an ace piolet like his childhood here, Takashi Shirogane. While his older brothers idolized sports heroes he idolized the piolet who broke many academy records, but he planned on breaking records as well. Instead of breaking records he found Keith standing in his way, for the person breaking Shiro's records was in fact, Keith. The attention of Takashi "Shiro" Shirogane was also directed undividedly towards Lance's "rival".

Even after becoming paladins of Voltron Keith kept winning everything. Keith was after all the first chosen as pilot of the ultra-fast red lion. Lance's "rival" was also Takashi Shirogane's choice for becoming a leader, but the black lion outright rejected Lance as an option for the leader position on the team. Lance's one strength – sharp shooting – remained underutilized compared to the skills of the other paladins, but Keith out shown everyone.

For once, though, he won.

He won Allura.

Allura chooses him over Keith, but Keith conceded defeat. Lance got the first date with their fellow paladin. He also – if one didn't count Lotor – got the first kiss. He solidified her as a part of his family, but he planned out his and Allura's entire future. With a girlfriend and eventual fiancé as beautiful as Allura and someone as handsome as himself, there was no way their future children would be ugly, yet he finally gained a position at the adult table among his family.

For once, he won...

... but lost everything.

She sacrificed herself so the universe might survive. The happiness Lance found was ripped from his grasp and smashed into a million pieces leaving him with nothing. Gone was the dream wedding. Gone was the dream honeymoon. Gone was the blissful dream of coming home from work for a home cooked meal, a kiss from the most beautiful wife in the entire universe, and warm hugs from the children. Gone was his chance at the perfect life he'd always dreamed of.

For the most part, things returned to normal. Despite everyone treating the paladins as heroes, there was now no Voltron to be paladins of. Everything which made Lance special was gone and he found himself left with the empty feeling. Hunk had cooking, Pidge her science stuff, Shiro the Atlas and Keith...

Keith was looking for Allura.

Lance felt angry. Allura was his, but if she were out there waiting for someone to rescue her the person would be Lance and not Keith. Lance was sure she would call out to him. After all, she was able to communicate with the Space Mice telepathically, but he was the one she choose; that meant he was her soulmate. His face was even adorned by Altean marks proving Allura was his.

"He did this when Shiro disappeared." Lance held his trey in front of him as he and Hunk moved through the line. "And what happened?"

"He found Shiro?"

"No, I found Shiro. Sure, I didn't realize Shiro's soul was stuck in the black lion's inner world, but I found Shiro. Keith found his clone. So no. No way Keith is going to find Allura. What he's doing is absolutely pointless."

"It's not pointless to Keith."

Lance followed Hunk over towards one of the tables where Pidge sat. Her mouth pressed into a frown. "Is it just the three of us today?"

"Keith's an idiot." Lance slammed his tray onto the mess hall table.

"Yea, but what about Shiro, Coran, and Romelle?"

"Coran and Romelle are busy trying to rebuild Altea by themselves and Shiro..." Lance rolled his eyes. "Shiro is waiting for Keith to get back. I can't believe he's actually letting Keith do whatever he wants, but then again that's normal. I don't see why neither of them sees what Keith is doing won't do anything."

Hunk turned his head slightly. After swallowing his food he spoke up. "This is Keith's way of grieving. You know it is, right?"

"Yeah. Try to be more understanding." Pidge piped up.

"What I understand is there is no way Keith or anybody else could possibly be as torn up about all of this as much I am, yet he's being stupid."

"Wow." Pride stood up with her tray of food. "Could you be even more conceited? All of us were hurt by her death, not just you Lance."

"What's her problem?" Lance muttered. He didn't see one of Hunk's eyebrows go up and instead stabbed his food with his eating utensils in an irritated manner. He found himself not eating any of the food and instead glared at the trey the entire time. Eventually, his best friend stood up and took his trey to the collection bins and Lance followed pursuit. He shoved his hands into his pockets while walking, but continued sulking until Nadia Rizavi rushed passed him in excitement. He turned in the direction she headed. "What's going on?'

"Keith found Allura." The dark-skinned female continued hurtling down the corridor in the direction of the medical bay.

Lance felt his stomach drop. "Wait..."

"Allura's alive?"

Hunk's voice made Lance turn. The larger paladin's eyes were widened and slightly damp, but Lance registered the look of hope in Hunk's eyes. "Hold on Hunk. Remember what I said earlier?"

"What?" Hunk started and looked at his friend in confusion.

"About Keith finding Allura?"

"But he did! He did just like he found Shiro." Hunk took off running, but his caramel colored cheeks puffed out in excitement.

Lance continued standing there watching his friend move faster than people would expect someone of Hunk's size to move. When Hunk was out of sight, he found himself taking a deep breath and letting it out. "Except he didn't find Shiro. He found Shiro's clone. There's a big difference there."

Nobody heard what Lance said, yet the nagging feeling in the back of his head meant he couldn't leave the situation well enough alone. When he arrived at the infirmary, he saw Pidge and Hunk just outside the door including Hunk and Pidge. Lance walked into the room without asking anyone if Allura was yet allowed visitors in while the other two watched.

His breath drew in deeply upon seeing Allura sleeping on the infirmary bed. In the very least the person looked like her with the same white hair and pointed ears. Allura's normally dark skin looked sickly pale, yet she didn't at all stir from the place she sat. Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw Shiro standing against the wall smiling while they looked upon the comrade who they thought they would never see again.

Lance also saw Keith.

Keith sat in a chair with his chin against his chest. A soft snore indicated Keith fell asleep in the chair, yet Lance wanted his rival gone from the room. His shoulders tensed up. "Keith..."

Shiro's head turned slightly while Lance started towards the spot Keith sat in order to wake up his fellow paladin and demand he leaves the bedside of _his_ girlfriend, but Shiro moved faster. The captain of the Atlas turned him around and nudged him out of the infirmary while Lance's blue eyes widened in surprise.

"Shiro, what are you doing? Allura's my girlfriend."

"Keith needs his rest. He's not slept well since..."

"What about Allura?" Lance hated the fact Shiro yet again favored Keith.

"She's not woken up so far. We don't know if she'll wake up. We'll let everyone know if there is a change."

He watched Shiro turn around and head back into the infirmary. The door swished shut behind the captain of the Atlas and Lance felt his mouth twist into a slight scowl. He turned towards his best friend. "That's not fair."

Hunk's eyes widened while Pidge pushed up her glasses. She spoke in a sarcastic manner "Of course it's not fair. After all, you're her boyfriend so you should get special treatment in seeing her while everyone else waits for who knows how long."

"Well, yeah. Why is it Keith's getting the special treatment? He always gets _the _special treatment. Why couldn't I have been the one to find her?"

"You weren't looking for her like Keith was."

Lance swallowed upon hearing Hunk's words but felt slightly betrayed. He turned away slightly. "I think I'll head back to my quarters now."

He walked away without looking either of his fellow paladins in the eye. Lance shoved his hands into his pockets as he continued scowling at the ground. Eventually, he arrived at the quarters assigned to him on the Atlas and flopped onto the bed. "It's so not fair!"

Soon, Lance found himself dozing off.


	2. A Blade for Lance

**Devil's Advocate  
****_A Blade for Lance_**

The sound of a rather annoying alarm woke Lance from his slumber. A groan escaped his lips when he remembered he forgot his sleep mask and headphones. He pressed his face into the pillow hoping the alarm might stop, but instead the sound got louder until he finally hit the alarm. Despite the sound ending, Lance found himself incapable of falling asleep again.

Lance sat up and pinched the bridge of his nose. The memory of Keith finding Allura instead of him remained raw in his mind. "Why? Why him instead of me Allura?"

He stood up and headed to the door of his quarters. The door swished open, and yet the rush of air on his face didn't revitalize him. He rubbed his bright blue eyes and continued walking towards the infirmary not caring what he looked like; his normal beauty routine was forgotten in favor of seeing Allura, but hoping Keith wasn't anywhere near her.

The halls near the infirmary were empty as Lance arrived, but he walked into the place without hesitating. Shiro and Keith weren't there, but Coran and Romelle were. Lance saw with one glance how worried the two were. "How's Allura doing?"

Coran didn't look up. "Allura is suffering from a soul sickness."

"A soul sickness?" Lance's eyes widened slightly. "What is soul sickness?"

"It's an illness Alteans get." Romelle looked tired. "Apparently the body falls ill because the soul has fallen ill."

"Why is Allura's soul ill?" He felt his voice strain.

"We don't know." Coran continued looking at the princess.

"Well, what's the cure?"

Coran turned towards him angrily. "How can we know how to cure her soul when we don't know what the cause is?"

Lance didn't like the tone the royal advisor used and snapped back. "Well, sorry for being far more concerned about her than you are! It's not my fault you don't know what the cure is let alone why her soul is sick! It's not my fault at all!"

He stormed out of the room and headed towards the galley where he knew he would find Hunk. Lance wasn't surprised when he found Hunk working on the next meal everyone would partake in. Pidge and Keith sat nearby keeping the former yellow paladin company, yet neither of them said anything. Lance stormed over. "I can't believe him!"

"Who?" Keith asked.

"Coran! He says they don't know what the cure for Allura's soul sickness is! I mean..."

Pidge let out a sigh. "Coran told us we needed to find out why she was sick before..."

"He did?" Keith's eyes widened slightly. "When?"

"Anyways..." Pidge ignored Keith. "I'm surprised he said he didn't know what the source of the soul sickness is when he told us he had an idea."

"I seriously don't remember any of this." Keith let out a sigh and leaned on his arm. "Is anybody else bothered by this?"

"Shut up Keith." Lance snapped. In the past, Keith would allow such actions to goad him into a reaction yet the former leader of Voltron simply shrug any negative feelings he felt away.

"That's not really nice." Hunk spoke from behind the counter.

Lance took a deep breath and walked over to the counter. He rested his elbows on the counter and lifted his hands up so he could rest his chin in his hands. "Seriously, why won't a kiss from one's true love work. After all, I'm Allura's soul mate, right?" He leaned towards one side and pointed at one of the marks on his face. "These marks prove it."

Pidge let out a laugh. "I don't know what's funnier, the fact you think this is Sleeping Beauty or that you honestly think you're Allura's soul mate."

"Pidge..." Keith let out a sigh. "That's not very nice."

"Yeah, well..." Pidge glanced away so her eyeglasses hid her eyes from view. "... Lance wasn't very nice earlier."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing."

"Well, I'm going for a walk. Unlike you three I am actually going to think of an answer to the solution." Lance saw the three look at each other in confusion. He folded his arms across his chest in annoyance before turning and leaving. "Seriously... nobody is coming up with a solution. Nobody cares about Allura like I do."

"You're right. Nobody cares about her like you do."

Lance turned and looked at the alien creature. The creature looked like a caterpillar with cat ears and otter mouth just like Slav, yet the colors of this one were much darker. Lance wasn't phased by the fact he'd never seen this specific alien before didn't faze him as anything he need be concerned about, and yet... "Who are you? What do you want?"

"What if I were to say I have a way of curing the princess of her soul sickness?" The creature lifted one of his eyebrows. "A way that only someone who cares about her the way you do could succeed at?"

A rather large and goofy smile spread across Lance's face. "Me!" He pointed at himself. "You mean I'm the one and only who can save Allura and not Keith! That makes perfect sense."

The creature lifted an eyebrow twice indicating Lance should follow him. Without hesitation, Lance did just that. He followed after the strange creature whose head height was around Lance's chest area. They eventually came to a place which was dark and secluded, yet Lance refused to listen to the warning bells which went off on his head that he was in fact following an evil Slav, for Slav was practically harmless if one didn't factor in his panic attacks over alternate realities play a factor in the negative outcomes he predicted.

The creature reached into a crevice and pulled out a blade. The blade was shaped just like the blade which let Keith into the Blade of Marmora, but instead of the pure silver, the blade was pitch black. Lance leaned forward while the creature held the blade out to him.

"So, what am I to do with that?"

"By killing those with corrupted souls you can awaken your love from her slumber."

"How will I know who is corrupted?" He found himself drawn towards the blade for some strange reason.

An evil glint appeared in the alien's eyes. "The blade will tell you. Take the blade."

Something in the back of his head screamed he shouldn't take the blade, but the blade itself was corruption, yet Lance pushed the thoughts away.

"You'd do _anything_ to bring back the love of your life, right?"

"Yes." Lance, in fact, knew he would do anything. His hand reached out and took the blade.


	3. What is Corruption?

**Devil's Advocate  
****_What is Corruption?_**

An electric feeling coursed through his body. Lance found himself not breathing as he looked down at the blade resting in his hand. The excitement began welling in his chest yet his mind rushed with many thoughts. One of the first thoughts crossing Lance's mind was how the blade looked like Keith's, almost as if everything was on some kind of repeat, and yet he also found himself wondering how Keith was, in fact, able to become a member of the blades.

"How does this work? Lance held the blade in front of his eyes admiring the blade.

"You'll know when the time comes."

Lance lowered the blade, but his eyes no longer saw the dark Slav in front of him. He pushed the nagging feeling something was wrong into the back of his head and instead shrugged his shoulders. He tucked the blade into his jacket and started walking without knowing where he was headed. His blue eyes drifted towards the ground while his mouth twisted into a frown. With his head down he didn't see the other person coming around the corner.

Crashing into the person knocked Lance backward and he found himself falling onto the floor. The blade remained in his jacket, yet he almost felt a humming sound in the back of his head, yet he knew he'd not hit his head. Mentally his mind registered the fact the person he bumped into was female which in turn was enough to turn on the urge to flirt with the female in question. Lance let his mouth twist into a smirk and looked up. "So.."

Any thought of flirting slipped his mind upon seeing who the female was. She leaned forward letting her dark fingers reach down in hopes of helping him up. "How are you, Lance?"

"Veronica?" Lance took her hand and let her help him up but watched her facial features twist in worry.

"You don't have to put on a brave face and pretend like everything is okay, particularly in front of me. I'm your big sister, so you can talk to me about anything if you want to. You do know that, right?"

"You can't possibly understand how I'm feeling." Lance shoved his hands into his pockets.

"No, I can't." Veronica took a deep breath. "That said..."

"Don't tell me you understand how it feels to see someone you care about hurting, because..."

Lance watched his sister's eyes widen. "Why would anyone say something like that?"

"What?" Lance swallowed slightly. "What do you mean by that?"

"What do I mean?" The corners of Veronica's mouth twisted slightly. "That's putting my feelings before yours, but all it achieves is guilt tripping a person into apologizing for the way they feel when they shouldn't have to."

"I see." A thought crossed Lance's mind. "Hey, you have a degree in psychobabble. What does corruption mean to you?"

"Corruption?" Veronica folded her arms across her chest and let her dark fingers dig into the fabric of her white Atlas uniform. "That has a strong implication of morals doesn't it, so I guess a good way to define the word is when one's morals aren't in the right and someone's done something wrong. Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Lance shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

His inner voice spoke up. "_If she wasn't your sister you would have flirted with her, wouldn't you have?_"

"_What are you talking about? As my mother said I am not a ladies' man._"

"_Isn't that a lie? And didn't you react to Veronica the way you did because you pretty much said what you didn't want to be said to you to Allura._"

"_Shut up. I wasn't in the moral wrong, so I'm not corrupt._"

"_Then who is?_"

"_Keith._" Lance let his eyes roll into the back of his head. "I mean, he's trying to steal Allura away from me. He's like one of those stalkerish guys who think they can wear a girl down until she dumps the guy, she's supposed to be with but is possessive and won't let go of her. Like Lotor if you think about it."

"_Sounds like..._"

"And then there is the fact he thinks he's _so_ special! He's got to be the best at everything and stills all the thunder and glory! It's so completely irritating! He doesn't have to worry about anything whereas I'm constantly worrying about how I'm supposed to fit into the team!"

Whatever the voice wanted to say Lance didn't hear or even give a chance to.

"He's also a major jerk. I mean, he's the one who said he'd let me go free from Bob's gameshow simply because he doesn't want to be stuck with me for eternity. I was at least nice enough to acknowledge the fact he is important to the team as the leader. I mean, he waltzed right in and said Shiro wanted him to be leader and..."

Lance's train of thought drifted slightly.

"... and Shiro always, always favors him, so of course the black lion would choose him over me. At least I got him when I said he could never ever have the blue lion and that he was jealous of the fact I have blue." Lance stopped speaking. He now stood in front of the door of Keith's quarters much, in the same manner, Keith was in front of the door to Lance's quarters when Keith asked about who the previous paladin of the blue lion was.

Unlike the time before Keith didn't come to the door like Lance had when Keith was outside the door.

"Are you ignoring me, Keith?" Lance raised his fist and banged on the door a few times before the electronic door slid open with a whooshing sound revealing Keith. The former leader opened and closed his eyes slowly almost as if the slight bags under his eyes hurt.

"What?"

Lance poked Keith in the chest and forced his fellow paladin back into the room. Lance heard the door whoosh behind him. "You! I'm tired of you!"

Keith looked at Lance without saying a word, but his eyes didn't blink.

"What business did you have bringing Allura back? Huh?"

"I..."

"Don't! It should have been me, Keith!"

Keith's eyes closed and a breath of air escaped his lungs indicating he was in fact quite tired. "I don't have an answer for you, Lance."

"You don't have an answer? She was _my_ girlfriend! My girlfriend Keith."

Keith's entire body stiffened slightly while his arms folded across his chest. "I _got_ that! Everyone's got that, so why do you have to keep rubbing it in!"

"Because apparently, you don't get it!" Lance lifted his hands into the air in frustration. "You're always hogging the glory and stealing everyone else's thunder!"

"I don't."

"You do." One of Lance's hands reached into his denim jacket but felt the knife waiting. He heard a humming sound, begging him to let _it_ take in the corruption. "You hog all the attention. From Shiro. From everybody for that matter."

"Hold on!" Keith's hands fell to his side in protest, but he swallowed deeply.

Lance felt the corners of his mouth twist. The next thing he saw was Keith looking down with his eyes wide and the blade now protruding from his chest.


	4. Killing Favoritism

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Killing Favoritism_**

Lance wasn't sure who was more shocked, he or Keith.

The pained expression on Keith's face though when he looked back up from the blade protruding from his chest made Lance feel guilty. In the back of his mind he kept telling himself he shouldn't feel guilty as Keith was trying to steal Allura from him, and yet he still felt guilty as the color started draining from Keith's face and Lance watched him die in front of him. The process was far from slow, but Keith acted as if Lance somehow betrayed him when in the back of Lance's mind he felt as if Keith was the betrayer again.

And then Keith dropped to the ground dead.

No blood dripped from the knife. In fact, no blood pooled around Keith either, yet this didn't cross Lance's mind as he turned and left. Guilt wracked his mind as did the fact he needed to get away from there so nobody would accuse him of killing Keith. The fact he killed Keith was true, and the death – Lance kept telling himself as the humming continued in the back of his head – was in fact justified. He simply didn't want anyone to know yet, or for anyone to stop him from curing Allura.

He took a deep breath and headed down the halls getting as far away from the room as he could.

"Lance?"

Lance's head darted up. He saw Romelle staring at him. "I thought you'd be excited when Keith found Allura. After all, the two of you make a perfect couple and I'm pleased I helped in getting you together."

"Ah, yeah." Out of the corner of Lance's eye, he saw something rush past him as if in a state of urgency. His eyes blinked upon seeing Keith standing now just behind Romelle. More importantly, he realized it was Keith who ran by him, but Keith had a rather panicked expression on his face. Lance swallowed. "Um, Keith..."

"I haven't seen him since he came back with Allura." This comment from Lance made his eyes blink. "Have you know, as you Earthlings say, seen a ghost."

Lance swallowed. "Maybe."

"Maybe?" Keith took a deep breath. "The answer is a yes Lance. I am a ghost thanks to you, but so far you're the only one who can see me."

Lance cursed under his breath.

"What's that?"

"Oh, sorry Romelle. I was just thinking maybe Shiro knows where Keith is."

"You're worried about Keith as well?" Romelle glanced over at the captain of the Atlas. Shiro looked slightly ill as if something was worried about something, yet his words indicated what that was.

"_How come he's worried about Keith of all people?_"

"That..." Keith responded almost as if he could hear Lance's thoughts."

"_Don't tell me you can hear me!"_

"What?" Keith's face twisted in confusion.

Romelle waved at Shiro and Lance and walked through Keith as she left. "Well, I'm going to go and see Coran and Allura. See you guys later."

"Keith's not been himself since Allura..." Shiro frowned. "Disappeared."

"You could say that." Lance stared right at Keith who most certainly wasn't himself.

"I was about to go and see if he's in his room. You can come with me if you want."

Keith let out a slight hiss. "Lance! Don't let Shiro find my body. He'll be devastated."

"He kind of deserves it."

"What?" Shiro's head darted up.

Lance swallowed and turned towards Shiro. "Uh, Keith deserves a chance to rest. Didn't you tell me that earlier?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't stop me from worrying about him."

Lance swallowed again. The look on Shiro's face was the one he got when he suspected Lance wasn't being honest with himself and those around him. He turned and started after Shiro, but Keith started walking in pace with him. "Seriously, if Shiro finds my body."

"Who cares," Lance muttered under his breath.

"I thought you idolized him!"

"Shut up Keith," Lance muttered under his breath. They soon arrived at the room and Shiro walked into the dark room. Lance didn't remember turning off the light but followed Shiro in. The light flickered on just as the door closed behind them making Lance suddenly jump. It was bad enough that Keith was now following him around as a ghost. Lance clutched the blade tight.

"Shiro..." Keith watched as Shiro looked down at Keith's dead body.

Shiro, of course, hurried over and leaned down. His hand reached out to touch Keith's shoulder slightly. "Keith. Keith buddy. I'm sorry I've rather ignored you since we got to Earth, but please. Don't do this to me. Please."

One of Lance's hands tightened around the blade he was given while the other formed a fist. He swallowed back the pain he felt knowing full well his idol would never do this for him. He heard Keith – the ghost – let out a sob next to him. "Shut up!"

Shiro turned and looked at Lance in shock, but quickly went back to _Keith_. His fingers felt for a pulse and when he felt none he let out a sob of dismay. "No, Keith. No. Who did this? Who?"

Lance watched Shiro lean in and touch his forehead to that of Keith's dead body, but Keith was now crying. Lance muttered under his breath. "It's not fair..." He then clenched his hands tighter. "He deserved it."

Shiro tensed up and pulled away from Keith's body. "What did you say?"

"I said he deserved it, Shiro! Always getting the glory and your attention!" Lance looked at the ground in anger.

"Lance, please tell me you didn't."

"Didn't what?"

"Kill Keith."

"Run," Keith said through a sob. "Don't tell him you did it."

Lance, of course, wasn't going to take Keith's advice. "What if I did?"

Shiro moved with he speed Lance expected him to, but he found himself lifted up by the front of his clothing as Shiro lifted him up off the ground. He saw the anger and pain in Shiro's eyes, but the man was definitely crying. "Why? Why did you?"

Lance narrowed his eyes. "Man. I didn't expect anyone to cry for Keith of all people."

Shiro's eyes widened in horror. "What?"

"You heard me. Of course, you wouldn't cry for me, would you Shiro? You're too busy letting Keith be the teacher's pet for you, right?"

Lance felt Shiro pull him forward slightly before shoving him painfully into the wall. "What the hell have you done Lance!"

"I warned you." Keith still stifled a sob but was starting to calm down.

"Are you going to kill me, Shiro?"

"_Corruption..._" Said the voice in the back of Lance's head as Lance watched Shiro's facial features twist with anger he'd never seen before, or at least not directed at him specifically. "_Kill him before he kills you. After all, he was corrupted and played favorites with his students, didn't he?"_

Lance felt his mouth twist in frustration and anger, but his blade whipped out slicing through Shiro's neck.

"No! Lance, no! Allura wouldn't want..."

"Don't tell me, Keith, what Allura would or wouldn't want!" Lance felt Shiro drop him and stumble back. He watched his idol – perhaps former idol slump down next to Keith's body, but the death seemed more instantaneous. "IT's more corruption."

"What the hell do you mean by that! Shiro's the last person to be corrupt! The reason he avoided me proves that! I mean, he avoided me because he attacked me and he would never, ever do that!"

Lance turned and looked at Keith. His dead companion's ghostly features were streaked with tears, but he honestly didn't care as the humming continued in the back of his head. "Yeah right! That's proof of his corruption! He favorited you, Keith!"

"That's because..."

"Don't make excuses for him!" Lance turned and left, but Keith followed after him.

"Lance, are you feeling okay. You're not acting like yourself."

"Of course I'm not feeling okay Keith," Lance muttered under his breath. "The woman I love is in a coma, so if I don't seem to be acting like myself there is a reason. You couldn't say the same about yourself as you've never felt the way I do about Allura about anyone."

"That..."

Lance turned and saw Keith looking at him with a rather shocked look on his face. "Tell me. Have you ever felt so in love with a person that you would grieve like I am grieving."

"No, but..."

"Then I'm the better person." Lance didn't care that Keith's face twisted in confusion. After all, there were a lot of things which confused Keith.


	5. Canary in a Mine

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Canary in a Mine_**

Things went into lockdown quickly.

"That's what happens when you kill the ship's captain Lance."

"Shut up Keith." Lance stood glaring at his feet. Keith's ghost stuck with him but wouldn't leave him alone. Worse, Lance expected Shiro's ghost to join them and chide him for what he'd done wrong, but only Keith was there and, in all honesty, seeing Keith didn't make him feel guilty at all.

"Allura wouldn't like what you're doing Lance."

"It's to save her," Lance muttered.

"Do you really think she'd want to be saved this way?"

"What would you know?" Keith said this more than once. "She picked me, not you."

"I know."

"Then stop trying to steal her and pretend you would know how she feels!"

Lance looked up just in time to see Kolivan passing by. The leader of the blades looked at him through narrowed eyes, almost as if he suspected something. Lance swallowed and turned his head away while Kolivan continued down the corridor to wherever he was headed. This, unfortunately, meant looking Keith in the eye. Keith spoke in a whisper despite the fact Lance was the only person who could hear him. "You aren't going to kill him next are you?"

"No." Lance let out a chuckle. "Kolivan is far from corrupt. Even Allura knew that because she trusted him despite the fact he's Galra." He watched Keith narrow his eyes. "What?"

"Allura didn't trust him right away. She hated all Galra."

Lance let out a snort. "What? Are we to believe she stopped hating Galra because of you."

"No. She stopped hating all Galra because she realized it was the heart of the person that matters."

"Yeah right."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If she cared about the heart of the person, she and I would have dated a lot sooner. It took her time to realize I was a decent person."

"What you say doesn't make sense?"

"A lot of things don't make sense to you Keith."

"Your right. This idea of killing people to bring Allura back doesn't make sense to me."

"It's proof you don't love her as I do."

"And then there's that."

"And what else?"

"The fact something feels off. Time flow feels off for example."

"Keith, can I remind you that you're a ghost?"

"And?"

"Time flow will feel off for a ghost."

"Oh. So, time flow doesn't feel off for you?"

Lance decided at that point to ignore Keith and walked in the opposite direction than Kolivan headed as he didn't want to run into him. Instead, he found himself running into Pidge. The green paladin let out a sniff as she looked out at the stars. Lance shoved his hands into his pants pocket. The knife was now in his pocket as he found a way to change the shape to his convenience, but he couldn't remember when or how that happened. "What's the matter?"

"First Allura, then Keith and Shiro."

Lance sighed and leaned against the pained glass. "Who cares."

"What..." Pidge's voice trembled.

Keith let out a sigh. "Lance, be nice. Don't make Pidge cry."

"I mean, who cares about whether Keith and Shiro are dead."

"I care that Shiro is dead you moron!" Keith snapped at him, but Lance pretended the ghost didn't exist despite the fact he was glad he'd gotten a rise out of Keith. He'd found himself unable to do that after Keith came back and took back the leadership position from clone Shiro. A smirk spread across his face.

"I only care about Allura and the fact she's okay."

"Pervert," Pidge muttered. A few tears welled in her eyes.

"Excuse me?" Lance bristled.

"You're going to go on about how you were the only one who cared about Allura dying again, aren't you?"

"Well, I was!"

Pidge narrowed her eyes. "You weren't, but I honestly don't see what Allura saw in you."

"Excuse me!"

"You're self-centered, always putting yourself first and looking to get your ego stroked, but she never once showed signs of liking you."

"My sister said she did, so she did!"

"Did Allura _ever_ say she loved you, Lance, _before_ her mind got taken over by Haggar's spirit?" Pidge watched Lance swallow. "She didn't, did she, so you can't say for sure Allura did in fact like you."

"Keith said Allura wouldn't date me if she didn't like me!"

"What would Keith know about romance!" Pidge snapped.

"She's honestly right about that." Keith the ghost wasn't helping Lance's temper.

"Oh, I get this. Either you're jealous because Allura ended up with me instead of you, or you're jealous because she got together with the man she loved while you couldn't get together with the man you pined for. Tough for you that Keith's dead."

"Lance, Pidge never had romantic feelings for me."

"What would you know!"

"What would I know?" The wetness around Pidge's eye welled even more. "I know Allura _never_ liked you. She thought you were an annoying prat."

"Take that back!"

"I always thought it weird that she wanted to date you, but there are plenty of reasons someone would date someone despite not liking them."

"Wait..." Keith's tone of voice indicated even more confusion on his part. "Why the hell would someone date someone they didn't like! That doesn't make any sense!"

"Shut up already!"

"No Lance!" Pidge raised her voice. "I am not going to shut up. You need to face the fact you were a bad rebound from another bad rebound and get over yourself!"

"I'm what..."

"_Pidge is jealous..._" the voice in Lance's head said. "_Jealousy is a form of corruption_."

Lance pulled the blade he was given from his pocket, but Pidge didn't see it or the blade change into a garrote. Keith did and his tone of voice turned to a tone of begging. "Lance! Please! Allura will never forgive you if you kill Pidge!"

"You heard me! You're a rebound off a rebound! The person..." Pidge's eyes went wide in horror as Lance lifted the wire up and quickly wrapped it around her neck and pulled tight so she would stop speaking. He heard her gasp for breath and watched a few tears pour down her cheeks. Her mouth moved slightly, begging for him to stop, but he'd already killed two people for Allura and let his weapon take in their corruption.

"Lance! It's not their..."

"Shut up Keith!"

Pidge's eyes went wide in horror as she tried gasping for breath. Lance slowly continued cutting off her airway. "You know Pidge, I've always known you were jealous of Allura. Unlike you she's beautiful, but people can _tell_ that she's a girl. That was very cruel Pidge, you pretending to be a boy and gaining my trust as if you were one of the guys, so I am going to enjoy watching the life leave those pretty little eyes of yours. They're the only thing pretty about you, but you always hid them behind an ugly pair of glasses."

Lance heard Keith let out a sob near him, yet ignored the other paladin as Keith said, "I'm sorry Pidge. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't stop him. I'm sorry Allura for not stopping him."

"Shut up Keith! Stop trying to steal Allura!" Lance pulled on the cord hard as his mind remembered the fact Shiro used his mechanical arm like a blade, Keith preferred a blade himself, but Pidge preferred a rope for a weapon, so justice was definitely being served and their corruption absorbed. The light went out in Pidge's eyes then, but a putrid smell hit Lance's nose. "What the hell... it smells like a dirty bathroom." Realization hit. "Gross Pidge."

"She's dead. She can't control any of that!"

"Shut up Keith. I didn't ask for your opinion did I?"


	6. Death of Friendship

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Death of Friendship_**

Lance felt good.

In fact, the humming sound in the back of his head felt good.

Keith following him was, of course, an annoyance, yet he could ignore that as Keith was forced to sit by and watch as it was he, Lance, who took out the corruption in the world. He walked into the mess hall of the Atlas where his best friend Hunk was cooking. The only other person in the mess hall was Matt who was sobbing his head off over his sister's death.

Lance walked over and sat down across from him and smirked. Keith walked to the other side of Matt and looked at him in horror. "Lance, leave Matt alone."

"So, whatever is the matter."

"You should know what the matter was. She was my baby sister. Of course, what would you know? You're the baby in your family." Matt wiped a hand under his nose to wipe away the snot which was performing.

"You're rather pathetic you know."

Keith made a motion across his neck indicating for some reason he should stop talking. Keith's eyes seemed focused on the galley where Hunk was working.

"I know I'm pathetic. I'm the big brother who didn't know how to save her." Matt let out a sniffle. "Shiro at least died trying to protect Keith."

Lance watched Keith take a rather deep breath. "I never liked Keith, so I never understood why Shiro would do something like that."

"You didn't know?" Matt stopped crying and looked at Lance in surprise.

"Know what?"

"Never mind. It's not my place to say." Matt wrapped his arms around his body and rocked back and forth. "My Pidge is dead. I couldn't save her."

"You know, you sound creepy right then as if you had the hots for your own sister." Lance let out a sigh. Keith made a cutting sound across his throat again, but Lance ignored him.

"That! I would never!" Matt choked out his words. "I wanted to walk her down the aisle when she got married!"

"First off, creepy daddy fetish instead."

Keith shook his head. Matt stood up from where he sat. "I do not! I meant I'd be the one if our father couldn't."

"Second, who would have married your ugly sister?" Lance watched Keith's mouth form a circle and then saw Keith shake his head and point behind him. "I also heard a rumor floating around that when Pidge died she wet herself. What kind of little kid would do that!"

"I thought you were her friend!" Matt snapped, but Lance found himself majorly satisfied for some strange reason when Matt ran out of the room.

"Man, he's going to go and cry some more." Lance felt a tap on his shoulder. He leaned back to look at the person while his arms crossed his chest. "Oh, Hunk."

"That wasn't very nice Lance."

"So?"

"So? I'm starting to wonder _why_ Allura was your girlfriend."

"Because she liked me."

"Yeah, but why? Because right now I'm not liking the person I see, a person I thought was my friend."

Lance narrowed his eyes. He leaned forward." What would you know Hunk?"

"I know that all of my friends but one are dead."

"Aren't I the most important one? After all, we've known each other since pre-school."

"You might as well be dead."

Lance kicked his legs up from the bench and swung around so he now looked Hunk in the face. "What the hell is that supposed to mean!"

"You're being cruel. I mean, acting this way about Keith's death is one thing.."

"He's right. Everyone knows you hate me."

"Shut up," Lance muttered under his breath.

Hunk, though, heard him. "No! I'm not going to shut up. I get the fact you hated Keith and refused to become his friend despite the fact he needed a friend!"

"He didn't need a friend Hunk! He had Shiro. He was even stealing you and trying to steal Allura away from me. She's _my_ girlfriend. I'd finally won at something Keith didn't!"

Hunk's lip quivered. "Lance, Allura wasn't a prize! She's a person with emotions and feelings!"

"What about my feelings! Huh! How come nobody cares about my feelings!"

Lance watched Hunk swallow and then turn his back on him. "Sorry Lance, but I don't think we can be friends anymore.

"What?" Lance sat down thinking the blow over. He leaned into his hands. "What have I done? What did I do to deserve that?"

"Um, you killed me, Shiro and Pidge, but openly mocked Pidge's brother when he was grieving for her. And are you sure..."

"Nothing's off Keith."

"_Keith has corrupted Hunk. After all, Hunk would rather be Keith's friend than yours and Keith is a dead man._" Lance's mouth twitched slightly. He didn't like hearing this from his own mind.

Keith's voice cracked. "Lance, I didn't corrupt Hunk. You know Hunk, but he's the last person who would ever be corrupted."

"Which is why he makes the perfect sacrifice for Allura. He's the purest soul corrupted by the darkest dark."

"Lance! Just listen to yourself! You're wanting to kill your best friend!"

"No, I'm saving my best friend from your corruption." Lance reached into his jacket for his weapon and felt a gun. Hunk's weapon of choice was, in fact, a gun, so it honestly made sense to do it this way. Lance stood up and walked over to the counter between the mess hall and galley. "Hunk."

"Lance, please don't."

Hunk, of course, chose to ignore Lance and thus Lance heard Keith pleading with him instead. "Can you turn and look me in the eye?"

"Lance, don't kill Hunk. He's the bravest and strongest of us all. Please, I'm begging you."

"Hunk, if our friendship meant anything to you..." Lance lifted his gun and pointed it at Hunk's heart from behind. "Please turn around."

"_Are you thinking that if he turns around the bullet will miss his heart but prove he's not corrupt._"

"It won't prove anything either way, Lance." Keith was emotionally distraught, but Lance didn't care. Hunk let out a sob but didn't turn. Lance fired the bullet and watched the bullet he shot off pierce Hunk's body. Then, he watched Hunk collapse to his knees and the pot he was washing clatter to the ground. Hunk soon collapsed to the ground.

Lance saw Hunk's dead open eyes and turned. He wanted to forget that look.

"Lance, this isn't you."

"It is me. I'm going to save Allura."


	7. Soul Fated

"Please tell me that you feel some remorse for what you've done?"

Lance didn't respond. He wanted to erase the memory of Hunk's dead face from his mind, but he also wanted to save Allura.

"You do, don't you. How could you not? It was Hunk you killed last after all."

"Are you okay?"

Lance's eyes widened upon hearing Krolia's voice. He looked up at the female Galra who Keith's biological mother was. She was the last person in the world he'd expect to console him.

"Yeah. You did kill me after all. And Shiro."

"_What? Does Keith think she'd tear me to shreds._"

"That's kind of a given Lance, given that she's you know, Galra."

"Stop reading my mind."

"Oh boy..." Keith let out a deep breath. "You keep forgetting I can't stop that but can even do that, but I have no clue how she'll react to what you just said.

"Sweetheart, it's kind of easy to understand how you feel."

"There is no way for you to understand how I feel."

"I lost Keith. Goodness knows there were also some things I needed to reconcile with Shiro on."

"What?" Lance frowned but looked up at Krolia in confusion. "What's that about?"

"What is that about?" Krolia's mouth pushed together, but for a moment Lance thought she would purr like a mother cat.

"My mother isn't a cat Lance..." Keith muttered. His voice then cracked at Lance's next thought. "And no! Just because I'm part Galra doesn't mean I'll purr like a cat when I'm happy either."

"I wonder..."

"What..."

"Oh, just wondering what Keith would be like if he was happy." In some ways, he was lying as he didn't care enough about Keith, but in the back of his mind, he still wondered if Keith would do something weird like purr like a cat. That would be great material to poke fun of him, but unfortunately, that would never happen – Keith being happy or the chance to mock his rival.

"You didn't know?" Krolia's eyes widened.

"Know what?"

"Keith was happy knowing his fellow paladins were happy."

"Sure he was."

"He was." Krolia stood up. "If you need someone to talk to, let me know. I may be Galra, but I do have a bit of experience regarding human emotions. My mate was human after all."

Lance watched her leave and heard Keith sigh. He felt his facial features twist in anger. He turned and looked at Keith. "What?"

"I was just thinking about my dad and how much my mom misses him."

"Why the _hell_ do you have to make everything about you Keith! Why do you have to be so self-centered like that Keith!"

"Are you okay?"

Lance felt his face twitch at a second person asking if he was okay and turned to look at James Griffin. "What do you want?"

James took a deep breath and folded his arms across his chest. "You were talking to – well, nobody was there."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, you definitely know what he's talking about. Maybe, just maybe..." Keith sighed. "Honestly, I don't know how you could make things up to Allura after what you've done."

"What the hell do you mean by making things up with Allura, Keith!"

"Okay. So I know you're probably feeling guilty about bullying Keith during our time at the garrison. I certainly do, but..."

"Don't you dare project yourself onto me!" Lance turned on James. "And I most certainly didn't bully Keith. He bullied me."

"What? When..."

Lance turned and glared at Keith. "Don't say you weren't a bully! You never acknowledge me as your rival!"

Keith's facial features twisted in annoyance. "Really? This again?"

"That would be because you were never Keith's rival."

"Excuse me?" Lance wanted to reach out and stab James with the blade, but for some reason, there was no humming or call from the blade to do so which irritated Lance greatly.

"Come on. He was at the top of our class and you the bottom. There were plenty of other cadets you had to pass before you got even close to being his rival."

"What, did you think _you_ were his rival?"

James let out a deep breath. "In academics maybe. Everything else, no. Couldn't even get close to matching him. He should have been the next Takashi Shirogane you know."

"Shut up Griffin. There is no way he could have been the next Takashi Shirogane."

"Yeah, I agree..."

"Shut up Keith. I was going to be the next Takashi Shirogane and you ruined that!" Lance glared at Keith and saw Keith give him another one of his super exasperated looks. These looks were worse than Keith reacting or just ignoring him.

"No, just no." Keith stood there with his arms across his chest and continued looking exasperated.

Lance reached out to grab the front of Keith's clothing. "What..."

"Look. If you're talking to people who aren't there, maybe just maybe you should go to the infirmary."

"I am going to the infirmary." Lance turned towards James. "I'm going to be the one who will cure Allura, not Keith."

"You are honestly the most delusional person I've met." James gave Lance an exasperated look as well. "Well, I'll give you that you're more likely to cure Allura because Keith is dead."

"No! I'm more likely because I have the marks!" Lance pointed at the marks on his face. "See? They prove I'm her soul mate!"

"I don't know what they prove, but if you were really her soul mate why was it Keith who found her."

"Shut up."

"James. I'm not following your logic."

"You shut up as well Keith!"

"Yeah. You _really_ should go to the infirmary and have your head checked out. Taking to people who aren't there is definitely a sign you've gone insane."

"I'm not insane. I'm headed to the infirmary right now only because I've got the cure for Allura and I'm going to go cure her!"

"Yeah. Keep telling yourself that, though I don't know how the Altean Princess is going to feel finding out all of her close friends are now dead. I get that you're her boyfriend, but at least be a little bit considerate about that if she ever does wake up. I guess I may see you later, but I'd honestly rather not."

Lance glared at James as he turned and left.


	8. Dark Steps

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Dark Steps_**

"I'm going to cure her," Lance muttered to himself as he walked towards the infirmary.

Except he wasn't alone. The ghost of Keith followed close behind him. "I don't think killing us will cure Allura."

"Yeah. You would think that." Lance's eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"Are you able to see my feet?"

Lance glanced back at Keith in confusion. "Say what?"

"Can you see my feet? Things feel a bit odd..."

"Stop annoying me, Keith. Why is it when you finally disappeared you didn't and I'm now stuck with your annoying self..."

"That..." Keith's tone of voice indicated what Lance said upset him, but he also stopped speaking.

Lance now stood in front of the infirmary. He took a deep breath before stepping in. He saw Coran sitting near the princess, but Allura on the bed. The corners of his mouth twisted into a smile thinking of how she looked like the princess from the Sleeping Beauty fairytale. "Hey, Coran?"

The older Altean looked up. Bags were under Coran's face as if the princess' condition were wearing at his psyche. The man's orange mustache wiggled slightly. "How can you be so chipper?"

"I'm going to cure Allura." Lance pointed at his chest emphatically. In the back of his mind, he dreamed of Allura waking up and giving him a sweet, sweet kiss for saving her, but he honestly couldn't wait until they could be alone. None of the other paladins would interrupt the intimate moment between him and his princess, yet he didn't think of why none of the other paladins would be around. Instead, he heard the humming in the back of his head telling him he was doing the right thing.

"Yes, but the other paladins are dead." Coran let out a sigh. The man's eyes fell upon Allura's still figure. "I can't imagine..." Another sigh escaped Coran's lungs. "She sacrificed herself only for those she cared about to not make it." The older Altean's eyes widened as if he'd realized something. "Wait."

"Hey!" Lance pointed at himself. "She has..."

"Did you just say you could cure the princess?"

"...me." Lance found himself staring at Coran who now looked at him in horror. "What?"

"There is no way _you_ of all people could cure her."

"Of course I can cure her!" Lance took a deep breath and pointed a finger at his chest. "After all, I am her soul mate."

The corner of Coran's mouth twitched. "No, you're not."

"Excuse me!" Lance felt his voice tighten. The humming in his head began to grow.

"You're actually the cause of her sickness."

"Ex... say what!" Lance clenched his hands together. He found himself storming over and putting his face into Coran's. "Take that back."

"I won't." Coran looked him in the eye.

"You're just ticked off I didn't go through the Altean customs like you wanted."

"Do you think I would have made you go through the customs if I thought you were an ideal match for Princess Allura?" Coran stood up and leaned in so his nose was only a few centimeters from Lance's face.

"Why the hell is it that nobody thinks I'm good enough?"

Coran let out a huff and sat down in the chair. The older Altean crossed his arms and rested one of his legs in his lap before letting out a sound of disgust rather than answering Lance's question.

"Seriously! You're not going to answer my question? At least the princess though I was good enough even though you didn't! Maybe the reason she's not come back Coran is because you and everyone else don't approve of our relationship!"

Coran turned his head slightly. "Tell me. Did you make the princess happy?"

"Of course, I did!" Lance felt his shoulders tense up. "We kissed and snuggled, but there was nothing wrong with our relationship! She said she loved me! She loved me!"

"You simply told me what made you happy." Coran sat down. "I want you to leave."

"You don't have the right! She's my girlfriend Coran!" Lance swallowed. "She chose me!"

Coran looked at Lance out of the corner of his eye and Lance picked up on the animosity the older Altean held towards him. Lance swallowed again. "Did you ever give her a choice?"

"I..." Lance's eyes blinked. "Of course I did! She had the choice of whether to be with me or not!"

"If that's the case I wonder why Keith is the one who found her and not you."

"She loved me, Coran! She said so!"

"There are many kinds of love, so did she mean the kind of love you wanted from her? Or did she mean something else? I've looked in the database and looked up the concept of love among you humans?" Coran pulled on his mustache rather menacingly. "Can you honestly tell me it was _agape pragma_?"

"What?"

"I take your answer as a no."

"How can it be a no when I don't even know what it is, this _agape pragma_."

"You could have at least described to me what kind of love it is."

"Allura is my family, but I'd promised I'd be there for her forever."

"Yup." Coran took a deep breath. "The answer was a no like I thought. I would appreciate if you left now. I am busy mourning, but at this rate, the princess will never recover, and even if she does, I doubt her heart would be whole."

Lance swallowed while his fists twisted in anger. "_He has no place talking to me about my love for Allura! I'd do anything for her, but how can an old man who's never had a relationship with another person understand how I feel. He's just as corrupted..._"

Realization hit Lance without hesitation. His hand moved towards the blade in his pocket and stepped behind Coran. He pulled the blade out and easily cut Coran's throat. He heard a gurgling sound from the man as Coran lifted his hands to his throat and collapsed onto the ground. Coran looked up at him with horror, but he wanted to say something.

"Do you understand how much I love Allura now?"

_Note - I was asked what I consider a very fair question by one of the reviewers. Whether Lance is a good person or not in my stories honestly depends on when I first started the story. _

_Virus Among Us__ and __Tattoo in the Sky__ were both written when VLD first started airing and I actually like how he develops character wise in those stories as I honestly feel this reflects the potential he had as a character._

_In fact, giving Lance the character development he needs so he's a less self-centered person than he ended up being in canon is still a major goal in my writing, but this also became harder due to Lance's hard headed stubbornness. _


	9. Awakening Beauty

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Awakening Beauty_**

The time had come.

Lance found himself looking down at his sleeping beauty. In the back of his mind, he wished Allura was laid out like one of the Disney Princess' in her gown with her arms crossed elegantly and yet he settled for gazing down at her beautifully shaped face and angelic features. Her white hair made him sniff slightly as one finger ran under his nose; he was a lucky man to have such a beautiful future bride.

Still holding onto the blade with one hand Lance leaned over and pushed his lips against Allura's, but kept them there for a long period of time simply because he could. After all, nobody could stop him as Coran and everyone else standing in front of him and his love – his soul mate – was gone. She was all his, and now nobody could take her away. The corners of his mouth twisted in glee. but he said, "Don't worry Allura. Soon you'll be awake and we'll be together, forever."

Lance stood up straight and held the blade in both hands and took a deep breath, He held it over her chest almost as if he were going to plunge it into her, and yet he didn't. Instead, a black ooze began pouring out of the blade onto Allura and covering her slowly. From behind the door swished open and someone stepped into the room. Angrily, Lance turned and glared at the person. "Don't stop me! I'm going to..."

Veronica stood there staring at him with her mouth open. "Lance. What have you done?"

"I..." Lance felt his mouth twist slightly. The guilty feeling he felt after killing Hunk started creeping back up on him as he continued standing over Allura letting the black substance ooze over her. The horror on Veronica's face became quite evident in indicating he'd crossed the line, and yet in the back of his head, Lance kept telling himself he'd do anything to wake Allura up so they could be together.

"_Were you really ready for your family to hate you for eternity?_"

"_What do you mean? I am doing the right thing, right? They were corrupted._"

"What do you mean they were corrupted, Lance!" Veronica's voice strained, but the fact she repeated _what_ he said meant she _heard_ what he said. She swallowed. "Lance, please tell me you didn't kill the others! Why would you..."

"I told you. They were corrupt."

"Corrupt?" Veronica reached her hand out only for her hand to be zapped by a dark forcefield which was between Lance and his sister. She held her hand and closed her eyes in pain but held her hand. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. "What do you mean by the others being corrupt?"

"Keith wanted to steal Allura from me."

"Allura doesn't belong to anyone Lance."

Lance didn't hear her and simply continued wagging his tongue. After all, there was no way his darling sister would ever lecture him, but she would understand what he was doing. And yet in the back of his mind, he heard what she said. The humming seemed to block the thoughts which resulted directly from what she said. "And then Shiro favored Keith and made him his teacher's pet."

"There was a reason for that."

Lance, of course, heard that. "There is no reason for _ever_ favoring someone over another."

"Lance, this wouldn't be because you think mom and dad favored us older kids more than you?"

"What? No?" Lance tilted his head slightly and yet found himself straining to look at Veronica as his knife was still over Allura. He glanced back and forth rapidly before stopping to look at Veronica. "Why would you think that? No, everyone in the family appreciates my greatness."

"What?"

"You know, how amazing I am."

"I guess..."

"Oh, and Pidge was being selfish. She wanted me all to herself and wouldn't let me be with Allura. Kind of a stalker I think..."

"Lance, I don't think."

"That, or she's mad that Keith would reciprocate her feelings. No guy would."

"Lance!" Veronica's voice strained as she yelled. "What about Hunk?"

"Hunk?" Lance glanced at the ground. "Keith corrupted Hunk. Hunk was no longer Hunk, so I put him out of his misery."

"Are you hearing yourself speak?"

"Yes. As for Coran, he didn't want to be with Allura. Nobody did."

"Lance, I think you're paranoid, but where did you get that blade."

"From an evil looking Slav." The words rolled off his tongue and yet the humming prevented him from actually thinking about what he said. He instead turned back towards Allura and saw the black ooze like substance covering her, but the blade wasn't leaking any more ooze. Lance lowered the blade and he turned his head towards Veronica. "Hey, could you give us some privacy."

"Lance..."

"When Allura wakes up we're going to make out and would enjoy a bit of privacy." Lance winked at his sister and yet didn't pick up on how frustrated she seemed.

"Lance!"

"It's not my fault..."

"Get your mind out of the gutter!" Veronica snapped at him. "Allura isn't a prize. She is a human being with feelings and free will. That means she has the ability to make her own decisions and they won't necessarily involve you the way you want them to!"

"Come on." Lance let out a chuckle. "Your just jealous that you've never had a boyfriend as handsome as my Allura is beautiful."

He turned his head back towards Allura. When he first held the knife above her and let the ooze created from the blood of corruption cover her she neither smiled or frowned, but now her lips twisted into a frown. Her fingers began to twitch slightly but slowly increased in rapidness. Lance felt his excitement grew and his own fingers twitched.

"_She's going to wait. Your bride..._" The voice in his head laughed almost in a mocking manner. "..._she's going to wake._"

Allura's eyes opened.


	10. Hated

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Hated_**

"I hate you."

Lance's blue eyes blinked while he let the blade drop. His throat tightened up and his stomach lurched at hearing Allura's waking words to him being that she hated him. He kept telling himself this didn't seem right, as Allura choose him and he was her soul mate. More importantly, he'd finally won and yet what he won was still being ripped from his fingers.

"Don't you mean Keith?" Lance asked hopefully. "He was the one who was by you just a few minutes ago, right?" The look in Allura's eyes though was willed with anger and hate. She sat up and as she did Lance watched the black ooze become black robes. "Allura, shouldn't you be staying in bed? After all, you..."

He watched Allura's eyes traverse to the ground and Lance found himself forced into seeing Coran's body. Lance swallowed back the lurching feeling in his stomach at seeing Coran's body. He felt ill, yet in the back of his mind, he wondered why he'd gone so far. "_Wasn't it because you wanted to do anything?_"

"_This is so wrong..._"

The next thing Lance knew he was flying across the room as Allura backhanded him or more of used the back of her arm to fling him. Pain rushed through his arm where she'd hit him, but the blow reminded him Allura's strength was above that of a human. Tears welled in his eyes, and yet he knew he'd had this coming. "_Did I? Did I really?_"

"Look. I don't care what my brother did to you Allura..."

Lance heard Veronica's voice and hoped she'd say, "..._but he's my brother, and I won't let anyone mess with him, got it!"_

Instead, his sister said, "... but this isn't justice."

He lifted himself up off the ground, but his ego was still figuratively dashed in pieces at his feet. Lance's blue eyes caught sight of glass on the floor but paid the fact no mind and instead looked at his sister imploringly. "Veronica..."

While she did give him a pitying look, it wasn't because she sympathized with him. "Lance, you can't treat people like crap and..."

A thundering noise erupted through the room and there was a black blur as Allura rushed forward and lifted Veronica up by one hand. Veronica's feet didn't touch the ground, but Veronica struggled to breathe. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes as she tried to breathe. Lance rushed forward and lifted his hands up. "Allura, if you care at me at all."

Allura turned her head and looked at him menacingly. Her teeth twisting into a sneer. "It's not as if you cared about me."

"Of course, I did!"

"Wasn't I just a prize to you?" Allura's hand tightened around Veronica's throat and Veronica gasped and then her eyes rolled into her head. The corner of Allura's mouth twisted up slightly as she looked at Veronica's limp body. Her dark blue eyes – Lance now realized they weren't bright blue like they normally were – looked him right in the eye before tossing Veronica against the wall before leaving through the door.

"Veronica!" Lance rushed over and nudged his sister, but found that she wasn't moving. "Veronica!" He felt tears fall down his cheeks as they fell onto her body. "Where's Keith when you need him?"

"What I was going to say was that is that you can't treat people like crap and expect a positive outcome."

Lance's blue eyes widened in disbelief as he turned and looked at his sister. Her ghost now stood near Coran's dead body. "No. Not you."

"Lance, what were you thinking?"

"I just wanted Allura back."

Veronica gave him a look of pity. "Lance..." The tone of voice her ghost used was the tone Lance recognized as an indicator he would get schooled even though it was always in the gentlest manner. "Was that it?"

"What do you mean?'

"You said something about Keith stealing Allura from you, but you also thought she should be hating him. You wanted her to hate him, didn't you?"

"I don't see what this has to do with anything! Veronica, I love you. I would never wish this on you."

"Yet you'd wish harm on your rival for Allura's affections?"

Lance's eyes widened. "Why would you say that? I called for Keith for help. He said Allura wouldn't date me unless she liked me, so..."

He watched Veronica push up her glasses, though he didn't understand why he needed to when she was a ghost. "In other words, he is conveniently your friend when you need him, and a nuisance when things aren't going your way."

"Didn't you hear me. I said..."

"The fact he said she must like you because she dated you?"

"She wouldn't have said yes if she didn't like me."

"That's wrong." Veronica took a deep breath.

"Keith said so!"

"Something tells me Keith is not the person to ask regarding romantic relationships." Veronica glanced away.

"But she said yes, and you said she liked me."

"Apparently I was wrong."

"She said yes Veronica!" Lance choked. "Don't you get the fact she said yes when I asked her out?"

"Something is missing from your story."

"No, there isn't."

"Lance, I don't have the time for this. I want to move on, but I'm going, to be honest with you. I never thought you the type of person to do something like this."

Lance watched Veronica begin to fade. "Wait! Don't leave me! Everyone leaves me!" The last image he had of his sister was a look of pity, yet he didn't understand why. He collapsed to his knees and let out a deep breath. "Why? Why is it that everyone picks on me? Why is it that nobody cares about my happiness? Aren't I important."

"Wasn't Allura important to you, young paladin?" The voice made Lance freeze, but he found himself not wanting to look up at the person. He knew the voice, and he didn't want to face them. He didn't want to face any of his ghosts.


	11. Broken Matches

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Broken Matches_**

She would never have had the chance to experience the Juniberry if it weren't for Allura.

In fact, Romelle would never have had the chance to experience the homeworld of her people if it weren't for the fact Allura sacrificed herself. The world was honestly amazing, far more than she dreamed of, but some of the knowledge regarding the homeworld became lost with time. As such it seemed at first that Allura's sacrifice wasn't in vain, yet Romelle didn't stop and think why this was important to her.

Except, Romelle quickly learned Allura's sacrifice didn't fix anything. The Altean people who were left were still under the spell of Lotor and Honerva's influence, but they didn't seem to care like the people of Earth about the princess who sacrificed herself. Some even credited Lotor for saving them despite the fact he was, in fact, part of the reason they ended up in the situation, but some still wanted to go to war with Earth.

Allura in effect gave up her happiness for nothing, but the very fact any of them thought such a sacrifice could fix the universe now seemed delusional, yet Coran said something along that effect. "_I'd give up our entire home planet just to have the princess back again. After all, we can make a home anywhere, but you can't make a home without the people you care most for. It leaves a gaping hole that can't be filled._"

How could any of the people understand what a wonderful person Allura was in comparison to Lotor and Honerva when she wasn't there, and they simply had the enemy's word of mouth. Starting over would still be difficult, but not anywhere near as difficult as it was now. In fact, the only person who seemed to be moving forward was in fact, Lance. "_I'm going to start a Juniberry farm with my family in honor of Allura._"

"Why couldn't the two of you be happy together?" Romelle let the water from the sink wash over her hands. "I mean, while it is true that you can be together now, how can it be a happy together when almost all of the other paladins are dead?"

Romelle froze while the water continued running over her hands. Appearing behind her was Allura, but an Allura draped in black. The anger in her eyes made a chill run down Romelle's spine. She turned around and looked over her shoulder in surprise but saw nobody there. A sigh of relief escaped her lips and she turned back. A strangled cry left her throat when she saw Allura standing on the side she'd not turned towards.

She then felt Allura's hand grab the back of her head and with great force, her face was shoved into the mirror. The mirror of course broke and Romelle felt the glass cut into her face as the water continued running. While none of the glass pierced an eye, she still found herself blinded by the blood running down from a gash above her eye. She let out a strangled cry. "Allura, why..."

"You made me date Lance." Allura's hand gripped the back of Romelle's hair tightly and yanked her back painfully.

"I didn't! I..."

"You didn't tell me it was a date until after I agreed."

Some of the glass fell into the sink making it so the water started backing up. Romelle found herself shoved face first into the water. She tried holding her breath hoping Allura would let her up, but in the back of her mind, she knew they'd not told Allura the visit to Lance's family was a date until after she agreed. A few air bubbles came out of Romelle's mouth as Allura let her head up. "Why are you doing this? We're friends, but you liked Lance so what is the big deal?"

"What friend doesn't realize they don't like a guy?" Allura shoved Romelle's face down again, but Romelle found herself struggling, as she finally realized something was wrong; Allura was definitely not acting like herself, and yet she could do nothing except squirm as if some force was preventing her from using her Altean strength. "Seriously, why would I like a guy who constantly annoys me like Lance does?"

Romelle felt her head let up and she gasped out. "At least he's better than Lotor."

Again, her head went down. "So I'm supposed to settle for a guy who constantly flirts with anything with the potential to pop out babies with him, but who sees me as an object rather than a person. I'm not just a princess. I'm not some doll for you to dress up and play with."

"Allura..."

"Don't you dare say my name." Romelle's head dunked under the water again. This time she didn't struggle. There seemed no point as Allura was completely in control of the situation. It was then that Romelle realized Allura wasn't going to let her up. In fact, Allura said her piece and Romelle found herself running through everything said.

She didn't let Allura know it was a date until after she convinced Allura to go because eating with Lance's family would prove relaxing after everything that happened. She then, after Allura couldn't back out easily, told her that it was, in fact, a date, but she did, in fact, enjoy dressing Allura up. Of course, she told Allura that it would be impolite to go back on the invite as well.

Or was it?

Romelle honestly didn't know enough about dating to say anything. She'd found herself far more concerned with taking care of her brother and then finding him and what happened to him that she never had the time to think about dating herself. A sob escaped into the now bloody pool of water which was starting to overflow onto the floor and soak her boots.

She was going to die here.

She was going to die here and never, ever go on a date.

That would be her last regret.


	12. Mocking Bird

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Mocking Bird_**

"Hello, Coran."

"So, you can't look me in the eye?" Lance took a deep breath and turned around to face Coran's ghost. The red-haired Altean stood floating in the air with his arms folded across his chest. "That's more like it. You still didn't answer my question."

"Of course, Allura is important to me?"

"Then why is your happiness more important than hers? Why is your happiness more important than anybody else?"

"That..."

"Isn't that what asking if nobody cares about your happiness implies?"

"I made Allura happy."

"Did you?"

"What do you mean did I?"

"Were you the one she wanted to be with?"

"Allura and I were meant to be together!"

"Why?"

"Because I say so!"

"But not because Allura said so."

"She said she loved me and gave me these marks."

"Why would she do that if she actually believed you two were meant to be together? Why didn't she just walk out with you?"

"That..."

"Lance!" Keith's voice made Coran and Lance turn their heads as Keith came through the infirmary door.

Lance narrowed his eyes at Keith. "Now you show up?" He pointed his thumb at his dead sister. "This is because of you."

Keith looked at Veronica and the color drained from his face if this was at all possible for a ghost. "That..."

"Isn't it?"

"We have bigger problems than that!"

"Than the fact, Allura killed my sister?"

"Allura just killed Romelle."

Lance's eyes widened. "What? Where?"

Keith dashed off through the door and Lance followed after him. Eventually, they arrived at the girl's bathroom. When Lance stepped into the bathroom, he saw overflowing from the sink onto the floor. The mirror in front of the sink was broken and some of the glass was on the floor.

Romelle lay on the flow with her bright blue eyes staring up at the ceiling. A few small pieces of glass were embedded into her skin, but blood stained her beautiful blonde hair. Water dripped from the corner of her mouth. Lance didn't like looking at her face and let his eyes drift down. The front of her clothing was soaked with water and clung to her figure.

"What perverted thoughts young man!"

"Get your mind out of the gutter Lance!"

"What!" Lance looked up to see ghost Keith glancing off in embarrassment. "Oh. You had the hots for Romelle did you."

"I'm going to go see where Allura is now."

"Why? She's not _your_ girlfriend. Why didn't you try and stop her from killing Romelle."

"I tried. It's as if Allura couldn't see or hear me, almost as if something were blocking me from communicating with her." Keith went through the wall.

"Good riddance! You're an annoyance!" Lance glanced back at Coran who gave him a rather disgusted look. "What?"

"You were thinking that, if Romelle wasn't dead, you would like to ravage her. Yet you claim you're the one meant to be with Allura."

"At least I wasn't thinking of fucking Romelle's dead corpse! There's nothing wrong Coran with thinking about what kind of awesome sex I'd be able to get from Romelle. There's nothing wrong with thinking about the fact she never got to be with a guy carnally." A sob suddenly echoed through the bathroom making Lance turn towards one of the bathroom stalls. "What was that?"

"You really don't think there was anything wrong with what you said?" Coran folded his arms across his chest in annoyance.

"No, listen." The sobbing continued and Lance approached the stall. He pushed the stall open and saw Romelle sitting on the toilet sobbing.

"It's so cold. So very cold."

"Romelle, what happened?"

The blonde haired Altean looked up with tears streaking across her face. "Allura..."

"Allura was here, wasn't she?"

"She was mad at me."

Coran frowned. "Why would she be mad at you dear girl?"

"Because..." Romelle sobbed. "She didn't know the date with Lance was a date until after she agreed. She thought he'd asked her as a friend."

Lance felt the color drain from his face, but his throat tighten. "No. That can't be. Keith said Allura wouldn't have gone on a date with me if she didn't like me, but she said she loved me before she left. You're lying."

Romelle burst into more tears. "I'm telling the truth."

"I believe you." Coran's ghost walked forward and hugged Romelle's ghost. "And, I forgive you." Romelle let out a few more sobs before disappearing. Coran turned and glared at Lance. "So, you didn't tell Allura she was going on a date when you asked her out?"

"I..." Lance glanced away. "You know, you're one to talk. You weren't going to let it be her choice either and was walking me through all of those steps. I bet you wouldn't have done that for Keith."

"You're right. I wouldn't have done that for him."

Lance clenched his hands together before turning towards Coran. "What the hell! Why is it everyone prefers Keith over me? Why is he so important, huh?' Coran simply looked at Lance as if he were missing the point. "That's why, isn't it? What's so special about Keith, huh?" Coran opened his mouth to say something but instead started disappearing just like Veronica and Romelle did. "Wait! Don't go! Please!"

He reached out for Coran's ghost only to find thin air where Allura's advisor once stood. Lance glanced down at the ground. He'd known full well Coran never wanted him to date Allura, but that Coran disapproved of the relationship. Lance chalked the entire thing up to Coran being a stickler for traditions, yet also not thinking Lance was good enough for Allura.

The idea Allura didn't think he was inviting her out on a date never occurred to him, nor did the idea of Coran disproving because he knew Allura didn't share Lance's feelings. "No. Uh, uh. There is no way that Allura didn't know that it wasn't a date. I mean, who wouldn't know it was a date."

"Actually..." Hunk's voice stopped short and Lance turned to see his dead best friend looking at Romelle's dead body in horror.


	13. Past Ghosts

_Note – An anonymous reviewer asked where my inspiration for my recent updates came from. The inspiration for "Child of the Dark Moon", "Devil's Advocate", "Free!Dom", "Gemini, Touch the Sky", "Taming Destiny", "Wings of Home" and "Winter Tree" comes from a quick glance through of the sixty-five prompts for Open Novella over on Wattpad. This list of prompts is available for anybody to use for inspiration, so if you're currently looking for such I suggest checking it out._

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Past Ghosts_**

Something was wrong.

Kolivan knew anyone attempting to take out either Shiro or Keith would find them formidable opponents, yet someone managed taking out both. The lockdown of the Atlas wasn't surprising yet he didn't feel as if there was any time between when their deaths were discovered and when the lockdown occurred.

In fact, Kolivan couldn't remember who informed him of their death nor did he know who discovered the bodies. He, in fact, had not seen the usual number of people roaming the halls ever since he took his nighttime rest, but the halls were left with a haunted feeling, yet Kolivan couldn't place the source.

One might say everything was simply in his head and brought on by the grief of losing two more comrades and in the back of his mind, Kolivan knew the deaths of the two hid harder than that of the others despite seeing so much death. Both were still children by Galra standards, but Keith was barely into adulthood by Earth's standards.

The lights above flickered and hummed while Kolivan reminded himself of what clued himself into the fact something was wrong. The only person he saw since waking was the paladin named Lance, but Lance was not the one who informed him of Shiro and Keith's deaths. Nobody informed him of the death of Pidge, Hunk, and Coren either, but now Romelle was dead and he simply knew.

"Children shouldn't be dragged into war."

"You say that, but drug Keith in."

Kolivan recognized the voice. In the back of his mind, he knew the anomalies started after Allura was brought on board, but he didn't think she was the actual reason behind the recent tragedies, though he did suspect she was actually tied into what was going on somehow. Knowing she was the key didn't help him in his current situation, nor did he think he would get any answers as his time had likely come. "Princess."

"You didn't answer my question Kolivan.

"You didn't ask a question, but made a statement."

"Turn around and look at me."

Kolivan turned and looked at her despite the fact he hopefully didn't want to. What he saw was Allura cloaked in darkness, but the look on her face was utter disgust. He'd seen the look before when they first met, but only this level of intensity he'd only ever seen directed towards Keith when she discovered he was, in fact, part Galra. "I don't have to answer the person who ultimately drove him away from Voltron."

"I did no such thing."

"Did you?"

Allura's hand shout out in anger and clutched his throat. She let her hand tighten and cut off his air, but lifted him up off the ground. For any Altean or Galra, such a feat should be impossible despite their strength, and yet whatever posses her allowed her to achieve such an act.

"I apologized to Keith. I told him he and the other paladins were like family yet he rejected my confession in favor of running off with the Blades of Marmora."

Kolivan's eyes narrowed. He knew the young paladin felt rejected by everyone else which was in reality why he left. The rejection Keith felt left the young man not caring about his own life and becoming reckless to a point he shouldn't have been, yet the issue was never, as far as Kolivan knew, resolved.

"I did not reject him!

Kolivan felt Allura fling him across the room, yet he couldn't remember when he got from the hall to an actual room. The fact she knew what he said almost confirmed his suspicions, yet he also knew Allura was linked to the space mice with a psychic connection. Whatever possessed her, in fact, enhanced her strength and may also enhance her ability to read minds.

Yet, she rejected Keith. Kolivan's eyes narrowed as he let his mind purposefully focus on the fact she chose both Lotor and Lance over Keith. He saw her face twist slightly when he thrust that thought upon her.

"He rejected me first." The words came across as self-centered until Allura said, "I felt so alone, yet every time I tried telling him how I felt he said it wasn't time. The fact I needed him was important yet he wouldn't let me tell him because he wasn't in the mood for being lectured, but it wasn't a lecture. He ran away only to come back and call me out for trying to move on but getting close to an enemy. I didn't know Lotor would be the enemy."

"I'll freely admit Keith was running away from things he shouldn't have. However, how do you think he felt when you rejected him for being Galra even though only partly?"

"I apologized."

"Only to end up in the arms of another person who was also part Galra like him?"

"I told him he and the other paladins are like family."

Kolivan's eyes narrowed. Family and friendship was not the same thing as being someone's significant other. His mind focused in on the moment Keith said Shiro was like a brother almost as if the young paladin was unsure he deserved even that much or even had that much. Even if he wanted something more he'd settle for something less such as friendship instead of kinship from Shiro."

"You." Allura reached out for his throat again. Kolivan found himself washed over with a sudden surge of emotion he couldn't read as she started throttling him again. "Lie. It's a lie I could have been with him rather than them. That's a lie, but everything you've said is a lie.

He continued looking at her yet wondered what would have brought the Altean princess to such a dark place, yet quickly remembered hey brought young ones into a war, but this young one in front of him had the entire weight of her people on her young shoulders.

Her grip tightened and tears began forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Stop."

The sound of the voice at first sounded muddled, as Kolivan let his eyes drift in the direction, but then the person became clear.

"Allura! Stop! Whey can't you hear me!"

A deep gasp was heard form Allura as she let go of Kolivan. Her head turned in the direction. She saw Keith. "Where? There's nobody there."

"Wait? You can see me Kolivan?" Keith, who looked like a corporal spirit from horror stories Kolivan remembered hearing as a small child leaned down. A look of hope appeared on his face. "Can you tell her to stop? The Allura I knew wouldn't do this."

"I know." Kolivan turned his head and looked at her, but she seemed caught off guard. The next thing he knew she was gone and the lights flickered on and off.

Keith looked in the direction she took off in. "Something's wrong with all of this."

"I know." Kolivan stood and realized he was now in the hall just outside of an airlock instead of in the room.

"You cheated. "Kolivan turned and looked at the person who said this and saw an alien of the same species as Slav. The lights blinked off again and Antok stood in that spot in his Blade of Marmora garb. His tail swished back and forth in an angry manner, but the death blow Haggar killed him with was a glaring hole Kolivan could see past.

"Kolivan?"

"Do you see him?"

"Who?"

Suddenly Antok which wasn't Antok pushed the release buttons on the airlock and Kolivna found himself sucked out as Antok said, "You got to close to saying the truth to someone, but also escaped your fate. You're not allowed to escape your fate in this."

Keith reached out, yet his hands passed through Kolivan's and then there was nothing.


	14. Lost Friendship

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Lost Friendship_**

Lance found himself crying in joy at seeing Hunk despite the fact Romelle's dead body was nearby. His lip formed into a pout. "I am so glad to see you."

Hunk looked up at Lance in horror. "Romelle's dead?"

"Well, yeah."

"Did you kill her?"

"Why do you think I killed her?"

"Because you killed me?"

Lance opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Hunk brought up a point Lance would much rather forget. "I... I didn't mean to."

"You meant to." Hunk looked back at Romelle, but his look of horror didn't go away. "Poor Romelle."

"Poor Romelle? Her ghost claimed Allura didn't know it was a date!"

Hunk turned and looked at Lance, but the horror was evident. "That's the most important thing to you?"

"Well..."

Hunk let out a sigh. "Well, that actually makes sense I think."

"What do you mean?" Lance swallowed.

"Now that I think of it, you didn't tell Allura it was a date. You both played it up as if Allura was, in fact, going to your family's house for the chance to relax because that was what she needed."

"Yeah, the date was what she needed."

Hunk's mouth pressed together. "Was it?"

"She enjoyed the dinner, but my romantic confession. I told her I wanted to be her family and that Earth could be her home. I told her I would go with..."

Hunk's eyes widened in horror. "You didn't."

"I did."

"Lance..."

"It was a beautiful confession."

"No, it wasn't."

"Come on! I said I'd go wherever she wanted to go!"

"You said you wanted to be her family, but all of us were already her family."

"That's not..."

"That is most certainly true, but you effectively told her that having you was dependent on only you being her family."

"Doesn't that mean she wanted to be with me?"

"How? You gave her an ultimatum that pretty much said if you want a chance at happiness you've got to choose me fully."

"Isn't that what love is about."

"No. The fact you said she was family rather than something more tells me you don't know what love is."

"And you would know?"

Hunk let out a deep breath before turning and looking at Romelle. "Did you kill Romelle?"

"No! I don't know who killed Romelle."

"You don't?" Hunk looked at him in surprise. "No idea?"

"Well, Keith says he saw Allura do it, but I think Keith is just jealous of the fact Allura was with me and is attempting to tarnish the beautiful thing we have."

"There is nothing beautiful about your and Allura's relationship!" Hunk's voice rose, but he wasn't at the point of yelling. "You effectively compared her to family, but you're being possessive of her!"

"I am not!" Lance rose his voice as well.

"Yes, you are." Hunk lowered his voice. "I should never, ever have supported you in asking Allura out."

"Come on Hunk. That's what friends do, plus you knew I was nervous about asking her out."

"We're not friends anymore. I don't want to be friends with someone who cares more about himself than his own friends, but the Lance I once knew would never have hesitated in asking a girl out. I should have known then something was wrong."

"Come on Hunk. You can't be serious. I'm not a ladies' man."

"Yes, yes you are." Hunk glanced away. "You love flirting with females and you love their attention."

"I decided to give that up for Allura."

"No, you didn't. You're putting a mask on your real self because you thought it would impress her, but your true colors kept showing through."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Do you remember when Allura was upset because her people were suffering?"

"Yeah?"

"She said something about you, not understanding."

"Yeah. I told her I might not understand, but I did understand what it was like to have someone I care for hurting."

"You put your feelings before hers, but you utilized your own feelings and manipulated her into apologizing for the way she felt. Keith on the other hand..."

"Don't! Why is it everyone is bringing up Keith!"

"Because maybe, just maybe the reason the universe is so messed up is because those two are meant to be together because that's what we call fate. It doesn't matter what universe it is, but true soul mates will always find each other."

"Are you saying I'm not her soul mate?" Lance pointed at the marks on his face. "This is proof that I am?"

"Is it?" Hunk glanced at the ground. "Why didn't she come back with you? Her sacrifice always felt unnecessary. It felt like there was another option."

"So all of this is my fault?"

"You're the one who thought it was a good idea to bring her back by sacrificing the rest of us."

"I said I would do anything."

"That's just it. Doing anything isn't a sign of love Lance. It's a sign of possessiveness. A person who really loves someone will let them go."

"She was dying."

"She was in a comma, but you didn't give anyone the chance to find a cure."

"Lance..." Keith came through the wall but stopped upon seeing Hunk. "Um..."

"Hi, Keith."

"What do you want now?"

"Allura tried killing Kolivan."

"See. This is why I don't believe him that she's doing the killing."

"Really?" Keith glared at Lance. "She killed your sister. And Kolivan is dead. The airlock mysteriously..."

"Shut up Keith and go away! Stop saying bad things about Allura! Go away and get out of my life! Stop trying to steal everything for yourself!"

Lance's words of course hurt which resulted in a very pained look from Keith. He turned, though, and left. Hunk glared at Lance. "This is why we're no longer friends Lance."

"You're choosing him over me?"

"I should _never_ have had to choose between the two of you. That said, I'm reminded of something else. Do you remember when we were discussing the cartoon?"

"Yeah. You said I was the one most like myself."

"I was wrong. True, the two of you are a ladies' man, you look the most like your counterpart, but you don't have any of his integrity. Keith, it's understandable he's not happy like that Keith is, and despite the fact our Coran is a goofballl he is still very super serious when we're in trouble. Allura was different, but I think now it was because she was hurting and not happy. But I also remember how you said it should be Allura and you as if she didn't have any choice."

"That..."

"Don't deny it. The only choice you ever give people is yourself. I can't be a friend with someone like that."


	15. Understanding

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Understanding_**

Matt felt ill. His hands twisted his hair while he sat in his quarters with his knees drawn up. His entire world was falling apart, yet everything. He'd always looked up to Shiro, yet Shiro also treated him like an equal. Shiro opened up and told him many things very few knew about the man before and during the Kerberos mission, which made him admire Shiro even more. Shiro also protected Pidge as much as he could given the circumstances of being thrown into a war.

Keith did as well, yet Matt remained one of the few friends if only friend Keith ever had. In so many ways Matt thought Keith not having friends was changing only for the young man's life to be tragically ended before it even began. Worse, Matt felt the end result of every time Keith found happiness of any kind was losing that happiness tragically.

Then Pidge died.

Matt learned how to be a better brother from Shiro and Shiro's interactions with Keith. It wasn't that he wasn't a good brother before, yet he felt he learned to read Pidge better, but appreciate what he did have even more because of all the struggles Shiro and Keith went through. What he learned to appreciate more was now gone.

Worse, Lance mocked him for how he felt. Lance was supposed to be a paladin of Voltron, yet treated him in such a manner Matt expected of the enemy or one of the kids at the garrison who bullied...

A sniffle escaped Matt's mouth as he buried his head in his arms. Lance was, in fact, one of the kids at the garrison who bullied Keith, yet Matt thought he'd changed. Lance never stopped being jealous of Keith. He outright called Pidge ugly despite the fact Pidge could dress up nicely with some prompting from their mother, but he commented about Pidge wetting herself.

Matt stiffened. "How did he know that?" His head lifted. "Lance is the one who killed them?" Matt shook his head. "No. Lance wouldn't kill Hunk. Hunk was his best friend." Hunk was probably Lance's only friend, yet the reason Lance truly only had one friend was different from the reason Keith once had only one friend. "This is a pile of poo."

Matt glanced at the floor looking for his dog, but for some Bae Bae wasn't there. The lights blinked off and then on, but a scream escaped Matt's mouth upon seeing Allura surrounded in darkness standing there glaring at him.

"Allura, what..." A cord wrapped around Matt's neck and he felt his body hoisted up into the air as if someone were trying to fake his suicide. The last word he gasped out was, "why", yet he wasn't even sure how Allura was doing what she was doing despite the fact she was in front of him and not behind him.

"If you were his friend, why did you let him stay away? You of all people should have known something was up, shouldn't you have."

Allura was, of course, talking about Keith, yet in truth, he didn't understand where she was coming from. When Keith was with the blades he had very little communication with him, yet didn't know the dynamics of the team and hadn't figured out Lance was driving Keith away.

"That's why I don't like him either."

Tears welled in Matt's eyes. He didn't want to hear this from her as she got together first with Lotor and then Lance.

"But you wanted to flirt with me."

He'd flirted with her because he was a ladies' man who specifically liked flirting with females because he liked buttering them up, yet he knew when someone wasn't in their league.

"I don't like ladies' men."

She, of course, meant Lance, yet didn't like the comparison. In the back of his mind, he remembered flirting with girls in an attempt at getting Keith to interact with them as well, yet Keith was so slow on the uptake.

"Keith isn't that way!" Allura snapped. "Just die!"

The lights flickered on and off again and Matt found himself hanging from the rope but no longer saw Allura anywhere. For some reason, her conversation lasted longer than the oxygen in his lungs, yet he didn't think much about it as he was dying. His eyes opened and closed and in front of him was Keith. "Matt?"

"_I am so sorry Keith._" He knew Keith was a ghost which in turn meant Keith couldn't do anything, yet he saw Keith attempt removing the rope around his neck, in the same manner, Matt's own fingers clawed at the rope. Despite being a ghost Keith was in fact crying. "_I wish this wasn't happening to you. I don't know why this is happening, but it is._"

His vision started blurring, yet somehow he knew he needed to communicate that it wasn't Keith's fault, but that everything would be okay even though Matt didn't think things would be okay. His mouth opened and slowly mouthed the words as his brain died.

"_It's_... _okay... not... your... fault._"

He didn't know if Keith would get the message. The fact Keith kept yelling didn't mean he didn't get the message. Keith was good at blaming himself. That was the last thing Matt wanted – the regret of a good friend hurting. He knew what it was like for a friend to hurt, but wanted to do anything to make it better, yet there was nothing he could do for Keith.


	16. Self Importance

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Self Importance_**

Everyone was abandoning him, yet he didn't do anything wrong.

Lance kept spinning the story for himself, yet deep down he knew everything he was hearing was right. The fact Hunk no longer wanted to be friends with him honestly stung as did the fact Hunk pointed out some very hard truths. Lance distracted himself by the thought of finding Allura, but he clung to the idea she had indeed chosen him and that he 'd not given her any choice.

"I hate you."

Lance froze where he stood. He'd heard these words from Allura when she woke up, but these words instead came from Pidge. He turned and looked at the girl. "You too?

"You're a moron."

"Seriously! Why do you have to degrade me like that!"

"Fact. You do stupid things, but you shouldn't talk about others degrading you when you do it yourself. You're a moron because you were focused on the fact another person doesn't like you but didn't bother asking why." Pidge looked like she wanted to cry.

"Why? Everyone likes Keith more, but for some reason, he's more important than me."

"No. It's because you've got this need to be the most important person in the room and can't stand when you're not the center of attention."

"That's not true!"

"You said, and I quote, '_there is no way anybody else could be torn up about all of this as much as I am_' in reference to Allura."

"Well, that's true."

"It's not."

"What I said was that Keith..."

"There you go singling out Keith and treating him as if he is a lesser person."

"Because he is!"

"Keith is not a lesser person than you."

"He's the one who thinks he's better than me!"

"He doesn't."

"Everyone thinks he's better than me."

"You're confusing Keith's abilities which factually outclass yours as an indicator of measuring a person's value or lack thereof and completely leave out the fact everyone is equal as a person. Even me of a scientific mind know being the better person – a better person – means doing the right thing, so effectively you are saying we think you are a person who would not do the right thing and Keith is. Well, that is now factually right."

"Excuse me?"

"You had the choice of being the better person, the person who did the right thing."

"In other word's better than Keith."

"No, thinking that automatically makes you not the better person. There isn't in the universe one singular person who will do the right thing but a multitude of people meaning that there are multiple better people out there. However, you decided to kill us rather than doing the right thing."

"It was to save Allura."

"So you could _be_ with her despite the fact she didn't want to be with you."

"Seriously! Why is it everyone says I'm not good enough for Allura."

"It's not a matter of being good enough but being the right person, but more importantly I've always thought it was weird that she was going out with you."

"Why the hell would you think that?"

"Because she's always liked, Keith."

"That's not true! She hated him because he was Galra."

"Allura was trying to avoid her feelings for him, but in the long run ended up chasing him away. That led her to rebound to Lotor and then rebounding from him to you."

"I am not a rebound!" Lance glanced around. "You know, this is about the time Keith's ghost shows up and tells me Allura killed somebody else."

"What?" Pidge's eyes blinked. "Who has she killed?"

"So far Veronica, Romelle, Kolivan..."

"What do you remember!"

"Why is that important?"

"Because Allura is going to kill again!"

"Yeah right. Keith was lying."

"Humor me." Pidge let out a deep breath of annoyance. "Tell me how this all started and what happened next.

"So, I woke up and walked into an evil Slav and got the blade I killed all of you with."

"Yet you didn't stop and think about the fact you labeled him as evil?"

"Well, no."

"Next I asked Veronica about what corruption was."

"So the first of Allura's victims."

"Yes..."

"Next."

"I killed Keith and then ran into Romelle."

"Let me guess, the next person you ran into who you didn't kill was Kolivan."

"Yes."

"And who was the person after that?"

"Matt. Why?"

"Quiznak!" Pidge took off. "Because of you, she's going to kill my brother!"

"Hey! If Allura is killing people it's her doing!"

"Not when you corrupted her!"

Lance hurried after Pidge thinking her ghost was nuts. They arrived at Matt's quarters only to find his body hanging. Keith and Matt were sitting there. "Really? You committed suicide?"

"I did not!" Matt looked up while Keith did as well. Keith has a look of horror on his face, while Pidge glared at Lance.

"It's my fault."

"Keith, I'm telling you it's not."

"Oh yes, it is! Seriously, why is it everyone is..."

Keith bolted from the room while Matt and Pidge glared at him. Matt said, "You're a monster."

"I am not!"

"You are," Pidge stated.

"Yeah. You said she was ugly, but mocked her for..." Matt paused. "Yeah, I won't repeat that."

Pidge said, "And this is your fault."

"I wanted to..."

"Stop." Matt glared at him before looking at his sister. "Pidge, let's move on."

"Agreed."

"Hey! Don't leave..." Lance found himself alone with Matt's dead body. Realization hit. He was alone because he'd pushed everyone away, yet as the others said he'd not given them a choice. It was always an all or nothing where he'd taken, but never gave anything back.

Yet, despite all of this he hated Keith still. He couldn't get past the fact Keith always had what he wanted. It was harder though to throw a pity party for himself when he knew everyone was right, yet he didn't know how to fix things.


	17. Mother's Heart

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Mother's Heart_**

She promised him she wouldn't leave him again.

Krolia, as a member of the Blades of Marmora, was used to death, but she'd never experienced death like this. Losing one's child was definitely different, yet she couldn't erase from her memory of holding her child for the first time let alone holding him again after so many years. He'd grow into a fine young man only for his future to be snuffed out so easily.

And then there was Shiro, who...

The lights flickered on and off before she could stop and think about Shiro. Strange things were happening but were distracting her from stopping and thinking about the fact she never got to reconcile with Shiro. So many important things were now gone and shattered into a million pieces and there was nothing she could do about it. A sigh escaped her lips as the lights flickered on and off again.

"Why?"

Krolia's eyebrows shot up upon hearing Allura's voice. She turned her head as a chill ran down her spine. She quickly discovered why upon seeing the darkness covering Allura as a robe. "I'd ask you to clarify, but something tells me to be wary of you?"

"Why did you leave Keith?"

She stared at Krolia. The contamination of her soul was quite evident which Krolia found disappointed. She spoke with Keith about Allura and how he felt about her, yet how Allura didn't feel the same way. He told her he could live with that if Allura was, in fact, happy, yet Allura didn't seem happy.

"Of course I'm not happy, but he didn't..."

"You shouldn't pry into someone's mind like that." Krolia carefully built up a mental block around her thoughts. "And no, you didn't seem happy. I mean, you weren't happy with Lance, were you?"

"That is none of your business."

"The fact it involved my son getting his heart broken..."

"I didn't. He broke my heart."

Krolia closed her eyes. "It doesn't matter."

"It matters! It matters that he..."

"I mean it doesn't matter if I am telling you the truth or not because he's dead, so there isn't anything that can be done to fix the situation."

"I could kill you."

"Why?"

"You left Keith."

Krolia pushed her lips together. "Yes. Yes, I did. You aren't a mother, so you couldn't possibly understand how I felt or why I did what I did."

"I don't want to hear that!" Krolia saw Allura swing and proceeded in dogging the blow. "I don't want to hear about people saying such things! Not when I said that and it was turned on me! If my feelings didn't matter then, then why do they now."

Allura swung again and Krolia dodged again. The fist of the princess left a large dent in the wall. "Except your feelings didn't matter."

'No. What mattered was the fact me hurting hurt Lance. As such my feelings didn't matter."

The next blow hit Krolia in the face as she purposefully took the blow. She grabbed the princess's hand. "You listen to me Allura."

"Do you really think you can get through to me?"

"It is true seeing your loved ones hurt does in itself hurt."

Allura suddenly pulled her arm away and grabbed Krolia to fling him against the wall. "See. I made Lance hurt. I was wrong."

"You weren't." Krolia's hand touched her ribs. Somehow the throw managed to break a few ribs, yet she was starting to feel it in her head as well. Taking the blow suddenly didn't seem like a good idea as the princess was stronger than she originally thought, almost as if amplified. She didn't, in fact, have enough time, but she didn't have enough time. "You weren't wrong for the way you felt."

"Yes, I was."

"When those I love hurt, I hurt because I want to fix things for them, not because I am being wronged by how they feel." Krolia found herself slip down to the ground. "I'd do anything to make that feeling go away, but it's the person who would do that for you – that is the person who loves you, not the person who puts their own feelings first."

"No!" The lights flickered on and off. "The person who does that for me – did that for me, he didn't love me. It was..."

"The others?" Krolia closed her eyes as the lights flickered on and off. "That's not love. That's manipulation."

When she opened her eyes Allura was gone. She thought she was hallucinating when she saw Keith coming towards her. She found herself starting to struggle in her breathing. "I am so, so sorry."

"Why?"

"You're dead."

"You loved me. You're my mother and would have done anything to make sure I didn't get hurt, but you can't always stop those you love and care about from getting hurt."

Krolia let out a laugh. "Wonderful. I'm giving myself advice regarding a situation I soon will no longer be a part of through the figment of my dead son."

"So you don't realize that I'm really here?"

Her eyes drifted to the ground. "Hmm..." Krolia took a deep breath or tried to before coughing up blood. She looked at where Keith's feet should be. "Your dad told me in his culture – I can't remember what it's called – that ghosts don't have feet."

"So I have feet?"

"I don't know. I saw whether you had feet or not, but I can't remember. If there a no feet, you're a ghost. If there is, you're a hallucination."

"Hey. Don't go."

"I don't have any choice, but it..." Krolia took a deep breath. "It would nice to be with all of you once again. Very nice. I'm sorry Keith I couldn't protect you."

"I'll try to see if I can't stop Allura from killing someone else."

With that, she breathed her last breath.


	18. Others

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Mother's Heart_**

Lance found himself pacing back and forth unable to decide where he wanted to go. He was lost in thought trying to figure out what he wanted, yet in truth didn't know what to think. Everyone kept repeating the fact he'd effectively pushed everyone away. Hunk, Pidge, Coran and even Shiro, yet he found himself stuck on the idea he'd pushed Allura away but also the idea of how Keith was always favored.

"Why? Why did Shiro always favor him?"

"Why?"

Lance spun around to look at the person who spoke. "Shiro?"

Shiro took a deep breath. There was a great deal of sadness in the man's eyes. "Why did it even matter?"

"Matter? It wasn't fair that you always favored Keith, but he's never, ever had to struggle." Lance let his lip jut out hoping he might get some sympathy from Shiro. He'd always hope that Shiro would acknowledge him, but just for once give him the special attention Keith always got.

"This is coming from someone from a home with both parents but who also got to know his siblings and grandparents."

"What of it?" Lance couldn't deny the fact the words stung. He knew Shiro's words meant he was the one who had the easy life, but that he'd never had any real hardships.

"You're the one who's lived the good life, Lance."

"I've never been number one at anything."

Shiro let out a sigh. "Lance..."

Lance glanced away knowing full well now he was placing too much on being the center of everything, yet this was one of the reasons Hunk didn't want anything to do with him anymore. "Why am I not important to you like Keith is?"

"You're not my brother."

Lance swallowed. Not being allowed to be a part of the Voltron family honestly hurt. "Look. I get the fact you're mad at me and stuff, but that you don't want to have anything to do with me, but all of us were family."

"No Lance." Shiro let out a deep breath. "That's not what I meant. Keith really is my brother."

Lance's eyes widened. "What?"

"You heard me."

"You and Keith don't have the same family name."

"I know. That doesn't mean we're not siblings."

"Why didn't you tell any of us! Why did..." Lance felt cheated by the fact neither Shiro or Keith told him, yet he also felt guilty. Shiro pointed out the home life Lance had for a reason.

"Because I'd not told Keith. I still haven't gotten the chance to tell him. It's always been the wrong time."

"But you've avoided Keith while we were on the Atlas!" He didn't want to believe the world he knew was falling apart.

"Yet you still feel I favored him? Yeah, I avoided Keith. I nearly killed my own brother, yet never once told him to the face he was my biological sibling. How can I..."

"It wasn't your fault."

Lance and Shiro turned and looked at Krolia. Shiro swallowed. "Not you too." He glanced at the floor. "I'm sorry that I couldn't protect him."

"You're sorry? I'm sorry I couldn't protect either one of you. I'm your mother. And as for you nearly killing Keith, that was the clone who didn't know the two of you were actually related because you protected those memories from Haggar. He never blamed you, nor did I, but he knew."

Lance turned and looked at Shiro. Shiro looked as if he were going to cry, but he tried swallowing back the tears. "How?"

"We were stuck in the time warp for a long time. We had to talk about something."

"Shiro..." Lance swallowed, not liking the fact the pain on Shiro's face wouldn't go away. He'd never expected to see such hurt on Shiro's face, yet his mind flickered to the memory of telling Pidge that others couldn't possibly understand how he felt about Allura as if his feelings for her were the most important thing if not the only thing in the world.

"How can I forgive myself? It may have been the clone, but the clone still tried killing him after Keith said he was my brother and that he loved me. Keith would have done anything to save me including sacrificing his own life to bring me back, yet I was – the clone was – willing to sacrifice everyone else including Keith because I – the clone – thought that was the most humane thing to do when it wasn't."

The words "_sacrifice everyone else_" hit hard as that is exactly what Lance had wanted to do. Right in front of him was a stark contrast of behavior coming from his own hero and that of the person he perceived as his rival, yet his hero said he was the one in the wrong. Lance in truth hadn't been willing to do everything when he wasn't willing to sacrifice himself; that would, in fact, mean he couldn't have his happy ending with Allura.

"Because Keith didn't feel you did anything that needed his forgiveness, nor did I. That's the way he was, always putting others before himself. Plus..." Krolia smiled at him. "If you have the clone's memories, did you not hear me say I was proud of you? You raised your younger brother to be an amazing young man despite everything that happened to the two of you. I'm just sorry the two of you won't be able to have a happy ending."

Lance looked down at the ground. He'd wished for Keith not to end up with a happy ending simply because Keith's happy ending conflicted with the happy ending Lance wanted for himself. Lance closed his eyes, pushing the idea that Allura never loved him and instead loved Keith to the back of his head. He glanced up. "Shiro..."

Shiro and Krolia were gone. Lance swallowed feeling so alone again, yet this time it felt worse. He'd honestly wanted to apologize and make amends but now he couldn't apologize to Shiro or anyone else for that matter.


	19. Hell Bound

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Hell Bound_**

He didn't like Lance.

Keith was dead and James found Lance ranting and raving to thin air. Worse, Lance's words were, "Why the _hell_ do you have to make everything about you Keith! Why do you have to be so self-centered like that Keith!"

In reality, the person doing that was Lance. James couldn't remember a conversation back at the garrison from Lance where his fellow cadet wasn't complaining about the latest slight from someone; typically, the someone was Keith or the slight involved Keith. Lance was also self-centered and didn't understand why nobody worshiped the ground he walked on.

James was surprised when he found out Allura was, in fact, dating Lance, but he also found himself losing respect for her. The lights blinked on and off.

"You."

James took a deep breath. "I don't like you."

"I don't like you either. You bullied Keith."

James turned his head and looked at Allura. She was a dark enigma cloaked in clothing that lacked her usual brightness. "You dated someone who _still_ bullies Keith." Something sharp pierced his shoulder and James found himself looking down at the spot the pain came from. One of his hands reached up and touched the blood which seeped out of the wound, but his eyes looked over and saw a blade in her hand. "Shit."

He found himself backing away from her, knowing full well Allura – this Allura – was more than he could handle. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw her narrowing her eyes at him. "Are you running?"

"Shit." James hurried into the locker rooms and grabbed a towel and tied it around his shoulder. He'd not seen anyone but Lance since he went to bed the night Allura was brought in.

"Where are you?"

James turned his head and saw her approaching. He didn't have any kind of weapon against her. The lights blinked on and off again and he saw that she was gone. It was then that he heard.

"Found you."

James turned and looked her right in the eye but swallowed. He felt pain shoot through his left.

"Now you can't run away."

"Bitch." James let his mouth twist into a grin. He watched her narrow her eyes at that word, yet he wasn't sure she understood what it meant. "Completely called for as you decided to be the girlfriend of the guy who bullies other people."

"Shut up."

James felt pain in his throat this time and his eyes widened. He looked at her in disbelief, yet he still found himself able to talk even though he gurgled his words out. "Not surprising you have a poor choice in men. Look at what you're doing now. "His hand pressed against his throat. "And don't pretend you're doing all of this for Keith. If you knew Keith, this isn't what he would have wanted. So don't try being the champion of justice for him because you're not. If you were, you never would have dated Lance."

James' eyes closed at feeling pain in his other leg. He didn't understand why he wasn't bleeding out at this point. "I had no choice."

"You had a choice." James hated the blood coming out of his throat, yet realized it wasn't that deep and the gurgling stopped. Of course, nothing about the situation made any sense beyond the fact she wanted him to talk.

"I had no choice."

"How can you have no choice?" The pain was immense. "Don't joke with me. Nobody was holding a gun to your head Allura."

"Lance didn't give me a choice."

James frowned. "Wait? Are you saying he never gave you the chance to say no, you didn't want to date him?"

"Then it was too late. We were already dating."

James let out a soft laugh. "What? You didn't want to hurt his feelings because he's your friend?"

"He's family."

"Then why the hell are you dating with him if your love for him is familiar."

"I had..."

"You're not helping..." Suddenly the gurgling was back and James closed his eyes. "You don't help a person like Lance by giving him what he wants. He needs to hear the truth."

The lights blinked on and off. Allura disappeared from his sight. James could feel himself bleeding out and knew he, in fact, didn't have much time left. His eyes blinked upon seeing a familiar face. Keith approached him which seemed strange due to the fact Keith was dead, yet in the back of James' mind, he thought maybe, just maybe he was seeing Keith because he himself was dying.

He opened his mouth to say sorry for everything he'd done, yet he wasn't able to say anything. For some strange reason, he was able to say what he wanted to say to Allura, but he couldn't say what he felt he needed to say to Keith. He'd meant to say it sooner, that he was sorry for the way he'd treated him back at the garrison, yet here he was now, in fact, unable to say anything, yet Keith was attempting to be the friend he never was.

Of course, that likely was just wished fulfillment on his part. His eyes opened and closed. That was until he heard Lance's voice. "Keith."

James' eyes snapped open and he found himself glaring at Lance. Keith turned his head to look at Lance. Realization hit that Lance wasn't talking into thin air, but he personally suspected Lance was the reason behind all of this mess they now found themselves in. He found it cruel that Lance was, in fact, manipulating Allura even now, but he hated the fact that would be his last memory of life.

For when he closed his eyes the next time he was gone.


	20. Fading

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Fading_**

For some reason, Lance decided he'd try finding Keith.

Perhaps the fact Keith was, in fact, the last person left of those who he'd killed in order to revive Allura drew him to find Keith. Perhaps instead Lance wanted to avoid Allura as currently, she scared him, yet he didn't want to face the fact she truly didn't love him the way he wanted her to. The fact she, and others for that matter, said they hated him honesty stung.

Lance found himself peeking into various rooms, yet he kept finding nothing. Eventually, though he arrived at the locker rooms for the male crew members and stepped in and looked around. He didn't see anything when he first stepped in but moved farther in. He found himself pausing when he saw Keith standing in front of the body of James Griffin.

Griffin was dead, blood dripping from between his lips and also the wounds in his shoulder, legs, and throat. The entire sight was ghastly and Lance looked away. "Another one?"

"If you think I did it, I can't exactly hold onto things with my hands."

Lance looked over at Keith. "Why would I think that?"

"For starters, you always blame things on me."

"I do..."

"And you're insistent it's not Allura doing this."

"Why would she do this Keith?" Lance watched ghost Keith take a deep breath. "What?"

"I'm tired."

"How can a ghost be tired?"

"I don't know. I'm tired of going in circles with you, and..."

"We go in circles because you never accepted me as a rival."

"Lance, I never wanted to be your rival."

"See. You didn't want to treat me as your equal."

"Rivals aren't equals. Friends are."

"Wait..." Lance swallowed as the light flickered on and off.

"All I ever wanted was to be friends."

Lance looked down at the ground. "Isn't that the same thing?"

"No, it's not." Keith took a deep breath. "Do you know how lucky you are? Family, friends. Even the girl you liked reciprocated your feelings."

"So, you are jealous of the fact Allura chose me." Lance found himself pleased that someone admitted what he thought to be true to actually be true."

"I don't know." Keith glanced away. "Honestly, I just want Allura to be happy."

"What?"

"If you're the person who makes Allura happy then I want her to be with you."

"Are you going to try and tell me you love Allura more than me?"

"I don't really understand this love thing beyond the fact Allura told me I was family and I knew my feelings would never be reciprocated."

"Wait..." Lance found himself freezing. He, in fact, told Allura he would be her family. "What's next?"

"I don't know. I am so tired."

Lance looked up and saw Keith starting to fade, but it seemed as if he was breaking emotionally. "Keith, are you giving up on Allura?"

"I..." Keith looked Lance in the eye. "I can't stop her Lance. I can't touch her, but she can't see and hear me. I can't do anything. I already told you I'd accepted the fact she'll never reciprocate my feelings, but I just want her to be happy. I want her to be saved. Please save her. Please stop her from killing any more people."

Lance opened his mouth. He wanted to say it made perfect sense that he would be the one to save Allura because he was her chosen one and her soul mate, but Keith disappeared before he could say anything more and there was an inkling in the back of his head that the reality he wanted wasn't ever real.

"Don't kid yourself."

The sound of James' voice made Lance spin around. "You!"

"You were thinking that you're the one to rescue Allura and ride off into the sunset because of some absurd notion you're supposed to be together. You're the reason though she's like this though, aren't you? In effect, you're as bad as Lotor."

"You don't know what you're talking about." The lights flickered on and off. Lance swallowed back the negative feelings while James glared at him.

"Did you know I'd lost respect for her because she started dating you of all people?"

"Oh. Let me guess? You're jealous I scored..."

"Women aren't prizes to be won," James snapped. "But I'm talking about the fact she was dating you despite the way you treat Keith. That didn't make sense if she was such a nice person like everyone said."

"You mocked Keith for not having any parents."

"You kept insisting he was your rival..." The lights flickered on and off." James looked around, but saw his body and let out a deep sigh. "What do you think you are to Allura? Some kind of knight in shining armor?"

"Of course."

James turned his head back towards Lance. "Except you're not. You're a black night with tarnished armor, but I don't think she wants a knight in shining armor. She wants to be someone's knight in armor."

"If you mean saving someone, she saved me by saying yes."

"Did she really say yes?"

"She said yes to the first date."

"That's not the same as saying yes to being your girlfriend." James took a deep breath.

"She said she loved me before she sacrificed herself."

"Allura was taken over by that dark entity before that, remember."

"Keith said I'm the only one who can save Allura."

"Then you don't need me to stay around." James started fading.

"Wait! Don't leave me alone!"

James glared at Lance and made Lance swallow. He honestly doesn't care that Lance was in trouble and didn't know what to do, but the look in James' eyes was filled with hatred. In truth, he didn't want to face Allura on his own. He didn't want his belief in her love for him dashed. After all, for once he'd won, but now suddenly it didn't feel like a win.


	21. Receding

**Devil's Advocate  
****_Receding_**

Lance found himself scared.

He feared facing Allura, yet deep down didn't want to admit as much. Everything, since he woke up after Keith brought Allura back, was a nightmare, yet in a very different manner than everyone else. The events happened so fast his mind struggled in keeping up, or perhaps he wanted to deny the truth behind everything happening.

Yet he needed to face Allura.

Everyone he'd encountered since waking up that morning was now gone, killed off by either Allura or himself, yet he'd not found anyone else despite looking for someone other than Allura. He came to the point where finding and facing her was better than being alone, yet in the back of his mind even being alone seemed like it happened quickly.

He didn't want to find Allura.

Instead, she found him once he decided to just give in to fate, but she seemed far from happy at seeing him. He tried giving her one of his charming smiles in hopes she'd find pleasure in seeing his beautiful smile as she had before. "Allura."

"I hate you."

"Don't tell me that." Lance jutted his lip out and gave her the best puppy dog impression. In the back of his mind, he focused on the fact Keith felt he was the one meant to save her and be her knight in shining armor."

"I don't need a knight in shining armor."

Lance felt his throat tighten but felt himself pinned against the wall by an unknown power. "Allura, what are you doing? You love me."

"I don't."

"That's a lie. You said you loved me when you left. You kissed me and gave me these marks."

Allura suddenly appeared right in front of him and her eyes were inches from his and he imagined kissing her and breaking the curse. "You're right. I lied. I lied about loving you."

Lance felt his throat tighten. "Keith said you wouldn't go out with me if you didn'"

He found himself flung painfully against another wall and let out a groan while Allura whispered into his ear. "I did not."

"Yes, you did, and Keith said you wouldn't agree if you didn't like me."

She grabbed him by the throat and thrust him onto the ground and choked him. He saw tears welling in her eyes. Her voice shook uncontrollably. "What? When did you talk to Keith?"

"Right before our date."

"He didn't try to stop it?" Allura's voice continued trembling.

"Why when he approved?" Lance found himself suddenly thrown, but he landed in such a manner he felt his wrist snap painfully. He let out a groan.

"Of course, he would. He didn't reciprocate my feelings when I confessed."

He felt his stomach lurch. Hearing Allura liked Keith from her own mouth rather than others who simply speculated was different. Yet, something confused him. Keith specifically said Allura rejected him. "_I don't really understand this love thing beyond the fact Allura told me I was family and I knew my feelings would never be reciprocated._"

"Wait." Lance sat up. "You confessed to Keith? When?"

"Right before he snuck onto the Galra ship, but that's really none of your business."

"I..." Lance wanted to blurt out it was his business because she was his girlfriend and he was her boyfriend, yet that no longer seemed real like it had before. "What did you say to him?"

"I said all of you had become my family." Allura's words made Lance suck in his breath deeply. "I told him I wanted to hate him because he was Galra, but I couldn't. I told him I realized what was important wasn't what he was, but who he was. I told him I wanted him to come back."

Lance slowly lifted himself up while avoiding his broken wrist. "So you called him family?"

"No. That's what you did."

"If you were bothered by my confession, why didn't you say anything?" Lance felt hurt. He turned and looked at her.

"You kissed me without asking if I reciprocated my feelings." Her hand reached out.

"You never said you had an issue with me kissing you."

"Have no issue? You didn't tell me it was a date, but I was told it was socially unacceptable to recant my answer. I then met your family and they made a big deal about me becoming your girlfriend. I was told you're not a ladies' man despite the fact I know you are, but I was expected to accept that as truth when it's not."

"All..." Lance felt his mouth covered.

"Shut up. You never let me say anything. You confessed to me and promised to be my family, but you were already that. But what else was I supposed to do? Keith rejected me, Lotor turned out to be manipulating me and there was nobody else."

Lance's eyes widened at the thought of being Allura's last choice.

"I was desperate to have something, and I told you what I wanted and thought that's what I wanted from a lover, but that's what I wanted from a friend. You then kissed me without asking if I reciprocated your feelings, but I couldn't say anything after because we got called back."

Lance's good hand reached up and pushed her hand away. Despite her strength, she let him do so. "You didn't object the second time I kissed you."

"You mean the time you confessed you were in love with my pain and that it made me stronger? That you wanted to ride on the coattails of my pain but didn't care about doing anything about taking it away? Were you not the person who said you might not understand how I felt what was happening my people, but that you understood what it felt like to have someone you cared about hurting? Yet you did nothing to try and alleviate that pain."

"You apologized."

"For what? The way I felt?" Allura gripped onto his shoulder and yanked. Lance found himself thrown again, but felt his shoulder yanked out of place. He let out a groan. He pressed his forehead against the wall. "I was hurting, but you did nothing."

"I'm..." Lance almost said he was trying to do something now, but stopped short when he realized he'd never done anything. He found himself turning in time for Allura to grab his throat so she could throttle him. Somehow, he was still able to speak. "You're right."

"What?"

"I know this is too late to say this..."

"I don't want to hear you say you love me! You've already said that!" Her grip tightened and he gasped.

After what felt like forever she loosened her grip. "No." Lance closed his eyes. "I didn't treat you right."

"That doesn't change what happened."

"No, it doesn't." Lance felt her grip tighten again. "I know it's late for this as well, but I should never have made you feel as if you didn't have a choice. I need to let you go."

Lance's vision began to blur, but in the back of his mind, he wished there was a way to fix everything, yet there was no way to fix things when everyone was dead.


	22. An End of Sorts

**Devil's Advocate  
****_An End of Sorts_**

Lance's eyes snapped open and he let out a deep breath. His eyes drifted over to the clock which allowed him to see the time and date. His blue eyes widened at seeing today was, in fact, the day after Keith retrieved Allura. The sound of his own voice as he lay in his room was honestly a relief. "Thank goodness it was just a nightmare."

He sat up and changes into his uniform before heading to the restroom so he might freshen up. The sight of his face in the mirror made him freeze. The bright blue Altean markings under his eye were in fact gone, yet Lance knew they were there the day before. He swallowed knowing full well he'd said he would let Allura go, but the fact he did was still sinking in.

Letting out a deep sigh, Lance headed out of the bathroom and headed towards the infirmary, but found himself stopping near the atrium where he heard Hunk's voice. "So, Allura really has woken up?"

"Yes." Coran let out a deep breath while Lance watched from a distance. He saw Coran, Hunk, and Pidge standing there, but none noticed him while he stood by one of the doorways leading into the atrium of the Atlas. "Before falling back to sleep she said she woke up from a nightmare, but she doesn't remember any of it."

"She's lucky." Pidge piped up. "It was horrible."

Lance ducked behind a wall and continued listening, but his hands clenched at the thought everyone had experienced what he had. Hunk's voice twisted in worry. "Is it normal for the victims of what made Allura sick not to remember?"

"It's part of the soul sickness, but she is likely to relapse if whatever had a hold on her still does."

Lance reached up for his cheek where the Altean marks once were before closing his eyes. For some reason, he knew what Coran meant, but Pidge verbalized what he thought. "You mean Lance?"

"I'm afraid I do."

"You aren't worried he'll go and see her when he wakes up?" Hunk asked.

"Keith is with her, though he did look very tired. I don't think he's fully recovered from trying to find the princess, but there is no telling what he went through in the dream."

Lance let out a deep breath and quickened his step to the infirmary. He found himself glad he passed by the doorway so none of the three talking in the atrium could speak to him regarding the matter, but he froze when he heard the voice of James Griffin. "You!"

Lance looked up and saw James glaring at him in anger, but he drew in his breath. The other MFE pilots were with him, but they quickly pulled him away. Lance let out a deep breath knowing quite a few people weren't happy with him, yet he found himself glad that...

He didn't know if he could fix things. He arrived at the infirmary and took a deep breath. He knew he'd not been invited in, yet he needed to do what he needed to do. He stepped in through the door.

The sound the door made when opening drew Keith's attention. "Oh, it's you." Lance opened his mouth so he might apologize to Keith as his eyes took in Allura lying in the bed looking at the wall. Keith quickly stood and said, "I'll let you guys be."

"W..."

The look of pain in Keith's eyes made Lance swallow. "I get it. She's your girlfriend. You don't have to tell me that."

Keith quickly slipped from the room leaving Lance and Allura. Lance swallowed. "Allura, we need to talk."

"I'm not..." Allura's voice tightened.

Lance took a deep breath before walking over and taking the seat Keith once occupied. "You don't feel up to talking?"

"I'm not in love with you. I never was."

The words stung. Lance glanced down at his feet and gripped his pants with his hand while his mouth twisted slightly. He took a deep breath and thought carefully about what to say. "I know. That's actually what we need to talk about."

"What is there to talk about?" Allura turned her head to look at Lance.

"If you didn't love me, even like me, why did you go out with me?"

"Why?" Allura lifted herself up and pulled herself into a sitting position.

"Just be truthful with me."

Allura looked at the foot of the bed. "I wasn't given the chance to say no, but I know from the Space Mice you were trying to change and become a better person. I felt guilty."

"For not reciprocating how I felt?" Lance knew he was the one who should feel guilty.

"And then your mother said..." Allura closed her eyes. Lance knew she was talking about the fact his mother said he wasn't a ladies' man despite the fact he had constantly flirted with girls, but it wasn't fair that was presented as simply an act. "Romelle said..."

"What did Romelle say?'

"That it was inappropriate to say no after I said yes. That I should give you a chance because that was only fair."

"I wasn't your first choice, was I."

Allura swallowed. "I know I was dumb for choosing Lotor, for falling for him..."

"He wasn't your first choice either."

Allura looked at him in horror. "What are you talking about?"

"Keith was. You know, when I said I understood what it was like to have someone I care about hurting, he instead asked you what you wanted to do. He put your feelings first."

"Does it matter? He doesn't reciprocate my feelings."

Lance sighed. "Yes, he does."

Allura glared at Lance. "He doesn't. I know he doesn't."

"Why?" Lance, of course, knew the answer.

"I confessed to him."

Lance swallowed and tightened his grip on his pants. "Allura, how did you feel when I confessed to you and said I would be your family."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"Keith told me you told him he was family."

Allura looked at him as if she didn't believe him. "That's not what I said. I said..." She swallowed. "Don't compare your confession to mine."

"Still, how did it feel?" Lance couldn't believe he was trying to play matchmaker for the person he'd always thought of as his rival.

"It felt horrible. It felt as if I were having to settle. I felt as if the only way to keep the family I'd gained was by being in a relationship with you."

"What do you mean by the family you gained?"

"I.." Allura turned her head away. "All of you paladins. Every single one of you have your family and would leave."

"Did you say anything about us being family to Keith?"

Allura looked up. "Of course. I did when I confessed. That's how I started my confession, but I told him I was avoiding my feelings for him by lashing out at the fact he was Galra and I wanted him to come back."

"Yeah, but did you outright say you had these feelings or was it implied?"

"What does it matter?"

"What does..." Lance let out a deep breath. "This is Keith we're talking about. He doesn't always get what people mean and it's infuriating. He really does like you."

"I don't believe you."

"I honestly don't blame you. I wasn't honest with myself." Lance swallowed. "I'm sorry I treated you as if you were a prize, but I'm sorry I let my jealousy of Keith get the better of me. I know you won't believe me when I say this, but I'm going to fix things. I don't know how, but I will."

_Note - Here ends Devil's Advocate. Between Winter Tree and this, this is the piece which I found myself successful regarding Lance. Yes, a sequel is planned._


End file.
